The letter, dated July 9, 1838, was written in the third person, a nineteenth-century signal of respect. In addition to assuring Lord Grosvenor that “Oliver Twist will shortly be published,” Dickens thanks the Lord for sending him clipped newspaper advertisements for boarding schools that promised “no vacations,” effectively turning them into storage houses for unwanted and illegitimate children. He credits clippings such as these as the inspiration for his influential 1838-39 serialized novel Nicholas Nickleby.

“. . . Mr. Squeers and Dotheboys Hall were originally suggested to [Dickens] by such advertisements as Lord Robert Grosvenor has had the kindness to enclose. Those particular advertisements had never come under Mr. Dickens’ notice before, although he was in the immediate neighborhood of Mr. Twycross (as he finds by his printed address) in the course of a little tour among the Yorkshire schools which he made last winter.”

An 1817 advertisement for Bowes Hall in The Times. Courtesy of the British Library.

EDUCATION — At Mr. Clarkson’s Old-established CLASSICAL, COMMERCIAL and MATHEMATICAL ACADEMY, Bowes-hall, near Greta Bridge, Yorkshire, BOYS are Boarded, provided with books, &c. and expeditiously instructed in every branch of a useful and polite Education, necessary to qualify them for any situation in life, at 20 guineas a year: the French Language is taught in its greatest purity, by a native of France, at 10s. 6d. per quarter. Mr. C. pledges himself that the strictest attention is paid to the health, moral conduct and intellectual development of his Pupils; and in order to expedite their Education as much as possible, he teaches assiduously in the School himself, and does not allow any vacations. For cards, and reference to parents of boys educated at this establishment, apply to Mr. Smith, 26 Lombard-street, who is Mr. C.’s agent, and will give information respecting the conveyance from London to Bowes-hall.

It is thought that this advertisement from The Times in 1817 may have been one of the clippings given to Dickens by Lord Grosvenor, as the author leans heavily on the text in Chapter 3 of Nicholas Nickleby:

Education.—At Mr. Wackford Squeers’s Academy, Dotheboys Hall, at the delightful village of Dotheboys, near Greta Bridge in Yorkshire. Youth are boarded, clothed, booked, furnished with pocket-money, provided with all necessaries, instructed in all languages, living and dead, mathematics, orthography, geometry, astronomy, trigonometry, the use of the globes, algebra, single stick (if required), writing, arithmetic, fortification, and every other branch of classical literature. Terms, twenty guineas per annum. No extras, no vacations, and diet unparalleled. Mr. Squeers is in town, and attends daily, from one till four, at the Saracen’s Head, Snow Hill. N.B. An able assistant wanted. Annual salary £5. A Master of Arts would be preferred.”

Bowes Academy, renamed Dotheboys Hall after the publication of Nicholas Nickleby. Courtesy of the British Library.

As he mentions in the letter, Dickens took a trip in January of 1838, to visit the most egregious schools in the Yorkshire area. He was especially impressed by the imposing Bowes Academy, run by a cruel headmaster named William Shaw–the very school advertised in the clipping. Shaw achieved infamy when, in 1823, eight boys at his school went blind after being locked in a wash-house for months at a time. He was fined £600, or about £250,000 today, for gross negligence. The similarities between Shaw at Bowes Academy and the fictional Wackford Squeers at the equally fictional Dotheboy’s Hall have been noted by scholars since the book’s publication. For one thing, both Shaw and Squeers were missing an eye.

But other nightmarish boarding schools with cruel headmasters dotted the nation. In his letter to Lord Grosvenor, Dickens mentions a Mr. Twycross, who ran a school at Winton Hall in Westmoreland, suggesting that Squeers may not have been wholly based on Shaw after all. We may never know, and as The Guardian points out, “fans of Nicholas Nickelby do still have the words of the author’s own preface as a guide. ‘Mr. Squeers is the representative of a class, and not of an individual,’ Dickens wrote, to indicate that he saw the unpleasant schoolmaster as a composite figure and, perhaps, to put readers off the scent.”

In any case, shortly after the publication of Nicholas Nickleby, nearly all the infamous Yorkshire boarding schools were closed.

]]>Records & Results: 19th & 20th Century Prints & Drawingshttps://www.swanngalleries.com/news/2018/03/records-results-19th-20th-century-prints-drawings-5/
Thu, 15 Mar 2018 18:30:58 +0000https://www.swanngalleries.com/news/?p=25017Our auction of 19th & 20th Century Prints & Drawings on March 13 offered an especially grand selection of original works by some of the greatest artists of the last…

]]>Our auction of 19th & 20th Century Prints & Drawings on March 13 offered an especially grand selection of original works by some of the greatest artists of the last 200 years. Works by Martin Lewis and Diego Rivera achieved new auction records, and many of the top lots were won by collectors.

Lot 145: Edward Hopper, House by a River, etching, 1919. Sold March 13, 2018 for $100,000.

Leading the sale was an important early etching by Edward Hopper. House by a River, 1919, was one of the artist’s first forays into the themes of modern isolation that would define his oeuvre. The house depicted still stands in Nyack, NY, just a short walk from the artist’s birthplace. It was purchased by a collector for $100,000.

Pablo Picasso was well represented in the sale by a fine selection of prints and ceramics. These were led by the masterful lithograph La Colombe, 1949, at $67,500. Another lithograph, Téte de jeune femme, 1947, reached a record $50,000. A partially glazed terre de faïence pitcher titled Flower Women, 1948, was purchased by a collector for $27,000.

Setting the sale apart was a selection of original drawings: a charming pencil sketch on blue paper by Claude Monet, at just 16 years old, of a cottage in Gainneville sold to a collector for $30,000. An elegant pencil drawing by Amadeo Modigliani, Femme nue, trois quarts, debout, circa 1915, reached $50,000, while Francis Picabia’s Sans Titre (Transparence), circa 1930s, sold for $40,000, above a high estimate of $15,000. A drawing in crayon by Picasso, Profile d’Homme Vert, 1956, exceeded its high estimate to sell for $17,500.

Works by Diego Rivera led a robust section of Latin American art, featuring each of his three most important lithographs. The 1932 El sueño (La noche de los pobres) sold for a record $40,000. Zapata, 1932, and Frutos de la Escuela, 1932, also performed well ($32,500 and $27,500, respectively). A charming ink and wash painting of a Niña sentada doubled its high estimate to sell for $30,000 to a collector.

Lot 166: Martin Lewis, New York Nocturne, charcoal, circa 1930. Sold March 13, 2018 for $47,500.

New York Nocturne, circa 1930, an extremely rare charcoal drawing by Martin Lewis, more than tripled its high estimate to sell for $47,500 to a collector. The iconic drypoint Bedford Street Gang, 1935, sold for $25,000, a record for the work. Swann currently holds the record for any work by the artist.

The important Benton Spruance lithograph Riders of the Apocalypse, 1943, warning of the destructive tendencies of modern man, was purchased by a collector for $27,500.

Todd Weyman, Vice President of Swann and Director of Prints & Drawings, said of the sale, “The market for nineteenth- and twentieth-century works continues to expand, as it appeals to both seasoned collectors and those who are newly entering the market. Works by American artists continue to impress, with outstanding results for Hopper, Lewis and Spruance. The growth of the Latin American market has been exceptional, with record-setting prices for Rivera, and promising results for artists new to Swann, like Oscar Niemeyer and Romeo Tabuena.”

The next auction of Prints & Drawings at Swann Galleries will be Old Master Through Modern Prints on May 8, 2018. The house is currently accepting quality consignments for autumn auctions.

]]>A look inside the highly-anticipated catalogue for our upcoming June 5 auction of Illustration Art. Following successful December 2017 runs of works by Ruth Eastman and John Falter, we are pleased to offer more works by these classic American Illustrators. Mad Magazine artwork from the estate of publisher Howard Kaminsky includes an alternate cover for The Sound of Mad by George Woodbridge, 1980, and Norman Mingo’s iconic cover for The Token Mad, 1973.

Leading the children’s book section is an original cover for Nancy Drew Mystery Stories: The Secret in the Old Attic by Russell Tandy. Beloved illustrators will be well represented with a delightful watercolor sketch of an elephant by Ludwig Bemelmans and a drawing by Jessie Willcox Smith for the classic 1922 edition of Johanna Spyri’s Heidi. The sale also boasts a large selection of works by Edward Gorey.

The popular theater section offers masterly works by Pavel Tchelitchew and an early set design for Death of a Salesman by Jo Mielziner. There will also be charming costume designs by Motley for the hit musical South Pacific, 1949, and a buoyant design for Doctor Jazz, 1975, by Raoul Pène du Bois.

]]>Our March 8 auction of Early Printed, Medical, Scientific & Travel Books coincided with the opening of Rare Book Week in New York City. With 94% of offered lots sold, the sale exceeded its high estimate by more than $200,000, indicating a healthy market for early printed material.

Lot 230: Sir Philip Sidney, The Defence of Poesie, unauthorized first edition, London, 1595. Sold March 8, 2018 for $149,000, a record for the work.

The paramount performance of the auction was due in large part to an Elizabethan literary critique with a complicated publication history: Sir Philip Sidney’s influential treatise The Defence of Poesie first appeared in 1595 in two editions set from different manuscripts. Two printers fought for the rights to publish it: William Ponsonby was granted the publications rights first, but Henry Olney managed to publish an unauthorized first edition as An Apologie for Poetrie. Ponsonby published the authorized edition as The Defence of Poesie. In the same year, he also took over unsold copies of Olney’s version and replaced the title page with his own. Offered in the sale was one of the extremely rare crossovers of the Olney copy with the title page replaced, making it a remainder issue of the unauthorized first edition. Very few copies of this hybrid edition are known to be in institutional collections. Competitive interest drove the bidding past the conservative pre-sale high estimate of $9,000 to $149,000, a record for the work.

Lot 113: Luis de Lucena, Arte de Ajedres, first edition of the earliest extant manual on modern chess, Salamanca, circa 1496-97. Sold March 8, 2018 for $68.750, a record for the work.

Early Spanish books pervaded each category of the auction. Among these, the earliest surviving manual of chess, Luis de Lucena’s Arte de Ajedres, circa 1496-97, which introduced a new mode of play still in use today, quadrupled its high estimate of $15,000 to sell to a collector for $68,750, a record for the work.

A remarkable selection of medieval guides to astronomy performed well overall. Highlights included Julián Gutiérrez’s De computatione dierum criticarum, 1495, which provides insights into the most astronomically auspicious days affecting the progression of an illness. A copy of the only edition was purchased by an institution for $30,000. The first illustrated edition of Poeticon Astronomicon, 1482, by Caius Julius Hyginus, containing the earliest printed depictions of the constellations, reached $17,550.

Manuscripts were led by Pedro de Gracia Dei’s Blasón General y Nobleza del Universo, a circa 1500 copy of a substantial portion of his 1489 Coria original edition of the same name. The Spanish book, containing 41 drawings in color based on the original printed version, tripled its high estimate to sell for $23,750. An early sixteenth-century Flemish illuminated Book of Hours in Latin on vellum, with sic full-page borders filled with flowers, birds, animals and insects in colors on a gold leaf background, reached $15,000.

A quarter of the auction was devoted to highlights from the collection of Gail Chisholm, renowned dealer and lifelong poster aficionado. Included in the collection was the largest selection of Erik Nitsche’s designers for General Dynamics ever to come to auction. All of the 19 works found buyers, with two achieving new auction records: the French version of Hydrodynamics from the influential Atoms for Peace series 1955, sold for a record $5,500, while General Dynamics / Atoms for Peace, from the same series, was purchased by an institution for $5,250. According to Lowry, “The strength of the Gail Chisholm Collection, which achieved a staggering 87% sell-through rate, seemed to set the tone for the rest of the auction.” In accordance with her wishes, proceeds from the sale of Chisholm’s collection will benefit Planned Parenthood of New York City.

Our winter auctions of Vintage Posters have become the premier destination for scarce and valuable ski resort advertisements. The March 1 sale was no exception, offering a run of historic images, some of which were previously unknown to scholarship. Leading the selection was Alex Diggelmann’s azure Gstaad / Berner Oberland, 1937, at $8,750. Additional Alpine highlights included The Golden Pass Route / Switzerland, 1934, by Edouard Elzingre, which sold for more than twice its high estimate for $7,813, and the English version of Erich Hermès’s Winter in Switzerland, 1936 ($6,250). A previously unrecorded advertisement for Sun Valley, Idaho, circa 1936, showing the world’s first chairlift just after the resort’s opening, sold for $3,750. Lowry said, “We sold 84% of the ski posters we offered-a ‘peak’ that reflects the current buoyancy of the market.”

Lot 197: Alphonse Mucha, The Seasons, set of four decorative panels, 1896. Sold March 1, 2018 for $45,000.

Paragons of Art Nouveau performed well, with Alphonse Mucha’s suite of four decorative panels of allegories of The Seasons, 1896, leading the sale at $45,000. Another highlight by the master was The Times of the Day / Réverie du Soir, 1899, which reached $10,000.

]]>Monet: The Master at 16https://www.swanngalleries.com/news/2018/03/monet-master-16/
Thu, 08 Mar 2018 22:29:34 +0000https://www.swanngalleries.com/news/?p=24894Before the term “Impressionism” and the overthrow of the established art world, Claude Monet was just a creative teenager. A rare example of Monet’s early experiments with en plein air…

]]>Before the term “Impressionism” and the overthrow of the established art world, Claude Monet was just a creative teenager. A rare example of Monet’s early experiments with en plein air drawing is coming to auction with 19th & 20th Century Prints & Drawings on March 13. In 1851, at the age of 11, Monet took his first drawing lessons at Le Havre secondary school of the arts. He spent his time studying en plein air with Eugène Boudin, his mentor, and earned money by drawing caricatures.

Monet created this graphite drawing on blue paper likely in the French village of Gainneville, located just outside Le Havre, Normandy, where he lived with his family. He was just 16 and already a masterful artist. His affection for the little hut in evident in the careful detail of its pockmarked foundation and its tufty thatching. It was executed on March 1 in northern France, and we can surmise something of the weather that day from the shading on the hut. It was barely spring, perhaps one of the first days that year he’d been able to go outside and sketch. The sun was so bright it rendered the far side of the hut nearly invisible, but the ground was snowy and the shadows dark.

At this stage, most of his works explored local vistas in which the subject is scenery more than people. The fields, forests and thatched cottages prevalent in the region captured his interest, setting the foundation for his fascination with ever-changing light that would become a fundamental tenet of Impressionism. Paintings from this period include Woodgatherers at the Edge of the Forest, circa 1863, in the collection of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, and A Hut at Sainte-Adresse, 1867, in the collection of the Musée d’art et d’histoire de Genève.

Drawings by Monet are remarkably scarce. Generally, he threw out his sketches or painted directly onto the canvas. Fewer than 50 drawings from the entirety of his career have come to auction in the last 30 years, approximately ten of which were from this early period. Already it was clear that he would become a great artist.

]]>We opened the 2018 season with a $1.6M auction of Icons & Images: Photographs & Photobooks on February 15. Important rare and unique work, both fine art and vernacular, brought a variety of buyers to the fore, with especially active bidding by institutions.

Leading the auction and closing to applause was Photographic Views of the Red River Raft, 1873, one of three extant copies of Robert B. Talfor’s documentation of the second attempt to clear debris from Louisiana’s Red River. Several institutions competed for the 113 hand-colored albumen prints, and the album quadrupled its high estimate to sell for $93,750.

A collection of 24 prints of Lewis W. Hine‘s most iconic photographs, spanning the entirety of his career, made their victorious auction debut, selling 92%. The works-each boasting the handstamp of Hine’s Hastings-on-Hudson studio, as well as notations in his own hand-were previously owned by Isador Sy Seidman, a friend of Hine, photographer and lifelong collector of photographs of New York City. An extremely rare early printing of the monumental Powerhouse Mechanic, or Mechanic at Steam Pump in Electric Power House, circa 1921, led the selection at $81,250. A contact print of One of many youngsters working in Carolina cotton mills, also known as Sadie Pfeifer, a Cotton Mill Spinner, Lancaster, South Carolina, 1908, printed 1931, doubled its high estimate to sell to a collector for $30,000. The lasting relevance of these images is exemplified by the buyer of Russian family at Ellis Island, 1905, who happily relayed that the children in the photograph are his great-grandmother and her sister.

Lot 178: Cindy Sherman, Self-Portrait as Lucille Ball, chromogenic print, 1975, printed 2001. Sold February 15, 2018 for $25,000, a record for the work.

Lot 75: Michel Millot and Jean L’Ange (attributed to), L’Escole des Filles, third edition of the first work of pornographic fiction in French, Fribourg, 1676. Estimate $8,000 to $12,000.

L’Escole des Filles, ou La Philosophie des Dames, which translates to The School for Girls, or Ladies’ Philosophy, is the first work of pornographic fiction in French. It was an early example of the literary genre unfortunately called “Whore Dialogues” that consist of two women, generally one more experienced than the other, discussing sexual exploits. In her essay, The Politics of Pornography: L’Ecole de Filles, Joan DeJean wryly points out that “the dialogue form is the preferred vehicle for a blend of philosophical and sexual subversiveness. The dialogues [in L’Escole des Filles] hardly live up to the promise of the work’s subtitle, La Philosophie des Dames, for in them sexual explicitness is completely without philosophical implications.” The present copy is believed to be the third edition–the 1655 first edition was suppressed on publication; all but a few copies were burned, and none now survive. Its alleged authors, Millet Millot and Jean L’Ange, were put to death.

In the first dialogue, a libidinous young man named Robinet lusts after naïve Fanchon, and has persuaded her older cousin Susanne to convince the girl to lay with him. Susanne prepares Fanchon, giving such helpful tidbits as the names and mechanics of various parts of the body, how to kiss, descriptions of positions and so on. Susanne enthusiastically describes a phallus: “It’s thicker and half as long again, hard and stiff as a truncheon, quite sturdy enough to stand erect in the way I’ve described.” Intrigued, Fanchon agrees to see Robinet in private, and a few days later Susanne resumes the dialogue to ask her young cousin about the experience, which Fanchon relates in detail.

Sarah Toulalan notes in Imagining Sex: Pornography and Bodies in Seventeenth-Century England, that although the protagonists of most seventeenth-century erotic dialogues are women, the focus of the conversation is on the “beauty” and pleasure of the male participant. “Even in passages where our first impression is that the female body is being described, what the text leads us to focus on is the action of the man in revealing and touching that female body, and of the reaction of the male body to the female body.” Toulalan accounts for this in two possible ways. First, that the texts were intended as guidebooks for women who were often entirely unaware of the specifics activities necessary for reproduction. Second, and more probable, “Whore Dialogues” catered to a male readership, and the focus was intended to align with the interest of the consumer.

The second example of nascent French erotica in our March 8 auction is an early edition of Aloisiæ Sigeæ Toletanæ Satyra Sotadica de Arcanis Amoris et Veneris, by French lawyer and historian Nicolas Chorier. The work consists of six dialogues concerning a young woman’s sexual initiation. In A History of Erotic Literature, Patrick Kearney calls it “the most outspoken erotic work of the seventeenth century.” Though the text purports to be the Latin translation by the Dutch classical scholar Johannes Meursius of a Spanish work by the sixteenth-century poet and courtesan Luisa Sigea de Velasco, this is now generally agreed to be incorrect.

The title translates to Luisa Sigea of Toledo’s Sotadic Satire on the Secrets of Love and Venus. “Sotadic” refers to Sotades, an ancient Greek poet known for lewd poems. The first edition was published in secret around 1660, containing the present six dialogues; the complete edition with a seventh and final dialogue appeared in 1678.

As in L’Escole des Filles, the dialogues take place between two women, 26-year-old Tullia and her 15-year-old cousin Octavia. Tullia has been asked by her own husband to “reveal to you [Octavia] the most mysterious secrets of bridal bed and to teach you what you must be with your husband, which your husband will also be, touching these small things which so strongly inflame men’s passion.” She suggests that “This night, so that I can indoctrinate you in all of this liberated language, [we] will sleep together in my bed, which I would like to be able to say will have been the softest of Venus’s lace.” Poor Octavia serves as a comedic foil, asking amusingly naïve questions that Tullia answers in graphic detail.

The present copy comes from the library of the erotica scholar and collector Gershon Legman. His bibliographical notes and stylized signature, dated 1954, are mounted on the front endpaper. According to The New York Times, “He accumulated what has been described as one of the world’s largest collections of published and unpublished erotic and scatological literature.” His secondary interest was origami.

These works were circulated among the libertine community brewing in Paris. Indeed, it seems they were as rousing politically as they were physically. In closing The Politics of Pornography, Joan DeJean asks, “What link can be established between clandestine literature of all types and the political explosion that was the culmination of Enlightenment? In other words, is it possible to use the category of philosophical books to help explain how the French were collectively able to rise up?”

]]>Erik Nitsche’s Modernist Visionhttps://www.swanngalleries.com/news/2018/02/erik-nitsche-modernist-vision/
Fri, 23 Feb 2018 22:53:56 +0000http://www.swanngalleries.com/news/?p=24740One of many highlights in our March 1 sale of Vintage Posters is a run of posters designed by Erik Nitsche in a series of campaigns for General Dynamics. Nitsche’s…

]]>One of many highlights in our March 1 sale of Vintage Posters is a run of posters designed by Erik Nitsche in a series of campaigns for General Dynamics. Nitsche’s design paved the way towards Modernism and away from overtly literal advertising campaigns. The 19 posters — the largest selection to be offered in a single auction — form part of the Gail Chisholm Collection.

Erik Nitsche was a Swiss native who worked in Germany and Paris before moving to the United States in 1934. He was one of many young European immigrants who changed the face of American graphic design, and is best remembered for his series of 29 posters for General Dynamics, where he served as Art Director between 1955 and 1960. His first series, Atoms for Peace, consisted of six posters designed for the General Dynamics exhibition at the International Conference on the Peaceful Uses of Atomic Energy in Geneva in 1955. These images rank among the most impressive corporate identity campaigns of the twentieth century. The campaign issued posters in English, French, German, Hindi, Japanese and Russian — according to Steven Heller at Typotheque, “those nations where atomic energy was being used for peaceful purposes.” Nitsche was charged with elevating “the stature of General Dynamics among other huge American technology firms in attendance, including General Electric, Union Carbide, and Westinghouse.”

As the conference was focusing on peaceful uses of atomic energy, so too did General Dynamics’s posters. Due to pressing national security issues, General Dynamics could not allow any of their products to projects to be depicted on a poster. Thus, Nitsche had to express the corporate mission through allegorical means, using design to convey speed, growth and forward impulsion. He found inspiration in scientific imagery, focusing largely on color gradients and geometric forms to convey these abstract concepts. According to the Cooper Hewitt, Atoms for Peace “melds influences from modernist art with scientific imagery to evoke a dynamic, innovative, and peaceful future.”

Perhaps the most famous image in the series depicts the USS Nautilus, one of the U.S.’s first nuclear-powered submarines. From Typotheque: “It was an indelible logo in its day. Set against a gradated gray background, the shell was a virtual cornucopia of progress. The submarine was not seen as a killing machine, but rather the offspring of progress poised to help the world.” It should be noted that the ongoing project to construct the Nautilus was so top-secret that Nitsche was only provided a basic idea of what the submarine would ultimately look like.

Here’s Steven Heller again from Typotheque: “The first series of six posters established a tone for all future General Dynamics graphics, as well as a paradigm, of sorts, for how the marriage of science and engineering would be visualized by kindred companies. Indeed Nitsche’s brand of artful futurism was copied by many others at the time and might be seen today as representative of the so-called ‘Atomic Style’ that emerged in the mid- to late-1950s.” The selection in the March 1 auction features all six of the original Atoms for Peace series from 1955, and 13 from various other campaigns, including the second Atoms for Peace series in 1956 and the Exploring the Universe series of 1958.

Heller continues, “General Dynamics was incorporated in 1953 as the parent for ten different manufacturing firms (among them, Electric Boat, Canadair Limited, Electro Dynamic, General Atomic, Convair, and Stromberg-Carlson) which at that time were administering to the defense needs of the United States. Its products ranged from atomic powered submarines to electric motors for destroyers, to the B-58 supersonic jet bomber and the commercial 880 jet transport. The company was also working in the areas of electronics, astronautics, aero- and hydrodynamics, and nuclear physics.”

Nitsche’s work is recognizable for its uncluttered minimalism and tasteful use of text as a design element. The forms, according to Jesus Diaz of Co.Design, “transcend their symbolism to become almost purely abstract.”

]]>Gail Chisholm: A Life in Postershttps://www.swanngalleries.com/news/2018/02/gail-chisholm-life-posters/
Fri, 16 Feb 2018 23:20:27 +0000http://www.swanngalleries.com/news/?p=24693Nearly a quarter of our March 1 auction of Vintage Posters was devoted to highlights from the collection of renowned poster dealer and aficionado Gail Chisholm. The sale opened with more…

]]>Nearly a quarter of our March 1 auction of Vintage Posters was devoted to highlights from the collection of renowned poster dealer and aficionado Gail Chisholm. The sale opened with more than 130 premier examples ranging from fin de siècle literary advertisements to World War II propaganda, which have been organized into their own catalogue. Proceeds from the sale of these posters will benefit one of Gail’s favorite non-profit organizations.

Gail Chisholm was beloved in the poster community for her impeccable taste and sense of humor. The colorful cross section of twentieth-century posters was led by a suite of three works—unique to the travel poster genre—by Georges Dorival, titled Vers le Mont – Blanc, 1928. The set displays the majestic peak throughout the day to lure all potential tourists, from early risers to night owls. Breathtaking travel advertisements for Scotland included two depicting holes on the famed Gleneagles golf course—The “Howe o’ Hope” and The “Heich o’ Fash”. Powerful graphic works by Adolphe Mouron Cassandre included Chemin de Fer du Nord, 1929, and Paris, 1935.

Gail Chisholm moved from a small town in Virginia to New York City at the age of 20. She devoted the next 42 years of her life to a marvelous mixture of art, culture, history and commerce. Her gallery operated from 1975 to 1994 in the West Village and from 1995 to 2017 in Chelsea. An unmistakable theme in Chisholm’s collection is a concentration of tantalizing advertisements for food and drink. Two posters from Charles Loupot’s iconic 1930 series for Cointreau demonstrate the artist’s mastery by using the color of the beverage as a thematic element while also reminding the viewer of the fruit from which it derives. Additional culinary highlights include J. Stall’s Champagne Joseph Perrier, circa 1929 and two featuring lobsters.

The void created by Gail’s absence will never be filled. At the end of her life, Gail was comforted by the knowledge that the posters in her collection would find good homes. In accordance with her wishes, proceeds from the sale of these posters will benefit Planned Parenthood of New York City.

]]>Our April 19 auction features a rare vintage print of Alfred Eisenstaedt’s iconic Premier at La Scala, Milan, circa 1933, and Robert Frank’s quirky Portrait of art dealer Richard Bellamy, circa 1959. Contemporary photographs include The Most Beautiful Part of a Man’s Body, 1986, by Duane Michals, as well as a deluxe edition of Robert Adams’s From the Missouri West, 1980.

]]>In advance of our February 15 auction of Icons & Images: Photographs & Photobooks, we asked Associate Director Deborah Rogal to talk about the planning that goes into a successful auction catalogue and exhibition, especially with regard to some of the more sensitive material we handle.

Sequencing and laying out the catalogue allows us, as specialists, to act in a curatorial capacity; each spread is an opportunity to see a photograph in a new and interesting way, for the reader as well as for ourselves. This fresh perspective on the material is one of my favorite moments in our production process. Every item that has been catalogued, photographed and researched as a stand-alone object, and suddenly becomes part of a specialized sequence that asks us to make connections in intriguing ways.

This is especially important when laying out the photojournalism we offer in the vernacular section of each sale. Many of these images are very familiar to us — Eddie Adams’s Shooting of a Vietcong Prisoner, for example, won the Pulitzer Prize — and yet the incredible shock and impact of these works forcefully reasserts itself when we introduce the image in the catalogue. Others might be new to the market, but offer an important perspective on a moment in history: a collection of civil rights imagery, or an album of mug shots made after the Attica Prison Uprising. One thing that strikes me consistently is is the knowledge that the photographer was there. In these images, we have first-hand accounts of some of the darkest moments of the twentieth century. We need to treat each image respectfully, without diminishing its impact or importance by juxtaposing it with something lighthearted.

We organize our catalogues and exhibitions so that the theme and date of each lot correspond to similar works. The vernacular section relies less on a distinct timeline than on imagery. Giving these photographs ample space on the page or gallery wall permits their meaning to resonate with the viewer, allowing them to remember the humanity and courage behind such images.

]]>Our auction of Maps & Atlases, Natural History & Color Plate Books on June 7 encompasses a broad range of American and European cartography.

Robert Morden, A New Map of the English Empire in America, London, circa 1698. Estimate $7,000 to $10,000.

Highlights include Robert Morden’s New Map of the English Empire in America, circa 1698, and Reading Howell’s monumental Map of the State of Pennsylvania, 1792, the finest large-scale map of the state published that century.

A fascinating variety of eighteenth- and nineteenth-century Japanese cartography will be on offer. Atlases include John Reid’s American Atlas of 1796, important publications relating to New York City, and the rare English edition of Jodocus Hondius and Gerardus Mercator’s Historia Mundi, 1635. Mainstay natural history artwork, historical prints and interesting and fun ephemera also feature prominently.

]]>A Look Inside the Catalogue: 19th & 20th Century Literaturehttps://www.swanngalleries.com/news/2018/02/look-inside-catalogue-19th-20th-century-literature/
Thu, 01 Feb 2018 20:01:18 +0000https://www.swanngalleries.com/news/?p=24916The May 15 auction of 19th & 20th Century Literature is replete with science-fiction cornerstones; of special note in this sale is a run of first editions by Philip K.…

]]>The May 15 auction of 19th & 20th Century Literature is replete with science-fiction cornerstones; of special note in this sale is a run of first editions by Philip K. Dick, including a signed copy of The Man in the High Castle, 1962.

Also available is an inscribed copy of the specially bound author’s edition of Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451, 1953, one of just 50 copies, as well as scarce early titles by Isaac Asimov, Arthur C. Clarke and Robert Heinlein. Signed limited editions include works by William Faulkner, Aldous Huxley, Virginia Woolf and W.B. Yeats, as well as a rare deluxe copy of Dylan Thomas’s Selected Poems 1934-1952, one of 65 signed copies, published in 1952.

Nineteenth-century highlights include the seldom-seen first separate American edition of Edgar Allan Poe’s The Raven, circa 1870, and the first edition in fragile wrappers of Christabel: Kubla Khan, A Vision; The Pains of Sleep, 1816, by Samuel Taylor Coleridge. Fore-edge paintings, children’s literature, library sets and bindings are also well represented.

]]>The multifaceted auction, Fine Illustrated Books & Graphics on April 26, spans media and disciplines. Highlights include John Ayers and Regina Krahl’s three-volume Chinese Ceramics in the Topkapi Museum, 1986, the scarce and desirable Chinese Architecture, 1925, by Osvald Sirén, and six volumes about antique Japanese fabrics with swatches by Kyoto Shoin.

]]>Our April 12 auction of Printed & Manuscript Americana illustrates the multifaceted tapestry of American history, featuring a cypress twig cut by General Lafayette at George Washington’s tomb, attractively framed in the early nineteenth century and with remarkable provenance tracing through Lafayette’s great-great grandson.

Latin Americana includes significant early Mexican printing, with several books published before 1600. Alonso de la Vera Cruz’sDialectica resolutio cum textu Aristotelis, 1554, is the first printing of Aristotle—or any classical author—in the New World.

Additional early highlights include a rare Pony Express Bible and an 1871 Colorado diary documenting a sheep drive. Sixteen binders of photographs of John F. Kennedy from the estate of his official photographer Cecil Stoughton bring the sale closer to the present day.

]]>Two highlights of this sale on April 5 are significant, vibrant paintings by modernist New York artists. Beauford Delaney’s large Untitled (Village Street Scene), 1948, depicts a Greenwich Village corner in bold impasto; Norman Lewis’s Untitled, 1956, is a mid-career abstraction of a city crowd surrounded by thin veils of pulsating color. An important find is a recently rediscovered tempera painting by Jacob Lawrence of a scene from the War of 1812 from his 1954-56 series, Struggle . . . From the History of the American People.

The auction also features a strong selection of abstract canvases by sought-after contemporary artists, with works by Ed Clark, Sam Gilliam, James Little and Jack Whitten, as well as a scarce photograph from Carrie Mae Weems’s iconic 1989-90 Colored People series, High Yella Girl, from an edition of only three.

]]>Scarce and important prints spanning the career of pioneering photojournalist Lewis W. Hine crown our February 15 auction of Icons & Images: Photographs & Photobooks. Here are some notes from the catalogue, as well as thoughts from Vice President and Director of Photographs & Photobooks Daile Kaplan — the preeminent scholar of Lewis Hine. Her books on his work helped to solidify his oeuvre and cement his place in the pantheon of journalistic photographers.

Lewis Wickes Hine was one of the most important social documentary photographers of the twentieth century. He spent years dedicated to his many projects, creating photographs that depicted his subjects with dignity and compassion. Hine coined the dynamic term “photo story” to characterize innovative assemblages of pictures and text and, in his letters, articulated a new role for photography as a fine art form.

Hine was commissioned by social welfare agencies, progressive publications and corporations to create visual stories, and produced some of the earliest photo essays that affected social change. His dynamic images, like Powerhouse Mechanic and the Empire State Building studies, which have a distinct humanist element, reflect the ethos and excitement associated with the Machine Age. Similarly, his “work portraits” of children toiling in American factories, commissioned by the National Child Labor Committee, highlighted the plight of the working poor and led directly to the institutionalization of stricter child labor laws. His iconic studies of immigrants, child workers and industrial laborers remain powerfully relevant.

The prints offered here were collected by Isador Sy Seidman, who owned the Seidman Photo Agency and was also a photographer. Seidman nurtured a lifelong passion for collecting photographs of New York City, and was a friend and patron of Hine. This will be the first time these prints have appeared at auction. The verso of each bears the hand-stamp from Hine’s Hastings-on-Hudson studio; a few boast his handwritten notations and one is signed. A selection of images spanning his entire career is uncommon; additionally, some are contact prints, making them even more scarce.

One of Hine’s projects that continues to resonate in the U.S. is his work documenting the trials of immigrants navigating Ellis Island and their arrival in America. The clearance process was long and arduous, and undertaken in dark, crowded halls by people who had just endured a trying transatlantic passage. Hine approached them to ask to photograph them, gesturing wildly because many didn’t speak English. His colleague, Frank Manny, ignited the flash powder to take the picture, creating a loud bang followed by dense clouds of smoke.

“Now, suppose we are elbowing our way thru the mob at Ellis Island trying to stop the surge of bewildered beings. . . . Here is a small group that seems to have possibilities so we stop ’em and explain in pantomine that it would be lovely if they would only stick around just a moment. . . . We get the focus, on ground glass of course, hoping that they will stay put, get the flash lamp ready.”

Arguably, Hine’s most famous project is his work documenting the construction of the Empire State Building. In 1930, a year after the stock market crash and onset of the Great Depression, Hine was hired to photograph the construction of what would become, for a time, the world’s tallest building. Hine balanced on beams 60 to 90 stories above city streets, capturing the exuberance and excitement as the magnificent skyscraper materialized. His acclaimed photographs depict the heroism of construction workers, who completed the project in a single year. Subsequently, he published a photobook on the subject: Men at Work.

]]>Vintage Posters 101https://www.swanngalleries.com/news/2018/01/vintage-posters-101/
Tue, 23 Jan 2018 18:52:25 +0000http://www.swanngalleries.com/news/?p=24620So you’ve fallen in love with a vintage poster. What next? Here are some of the most important things to consider when talking about, looking for, and decorating with vintage…

]]>So you’ve fallen in love with a vintage poster. What next? Here are some of the most important things to consider when talking about, looking for, and decorating with vintage posters. We used some exemplary works from our archives, as well as installation shots from a few of our recent exhibitions.

Around the edge of most posters is the margin. The width of this border varies from poster to poster, but should not be trimmed off; not only is this most often where the printer’s information is found, it is also considered an integral part of the poster itself. A missing margin is considered a flaw.

Some posters include a blank space where text could be inserted at a later date. This was most common in advertisements for performers who might appear at different venues, or products sold at different stores. Thus it is possible to see two posters for a performance which appear identical in image, but bear the name of a different theater and date. These are referred to as variants.

The earliest full-color posters were all created via the process of stone lithography, in which different stones were created for each color of the poster and the image was printed in layers. Subsequent printing styles include zinc (or metal) plate lithography, photo-offset, silkscreen and letterpress.

Determining the authenticity of a vintage poster is not always easy to do, but there are a handful of techniques you can use to make an initial assessment. If the poster purportedly originated around the turn of the century, the paper should have a texture reminiscent of newsprint. If it feels or looks like the paper from a glossy magazine, it is a more recent print.

It is not unusual for a reproduction of a poster to actually have that information printed in the bottom margin. Regrettably, this isn’t always the case, but it is worth a quick look.

Posters that are supposed to be stone lithographs will not look pixilated under a loupe, or magnifying glass. The process of stone lithography applies a solid layer of color to the paper, whereas posters that are digitally reproduced all have the tell-tale pixels when seen under magnification. The tricky part is that some posters were originally printed photographically, so seeing pixels is not always a way of proving authenticity.

Posters are delicate. By their nature, they are ephemeral and not intended for longevity. Collectors have different opinions on proper treatment and preservation but the American standard is to have a poster mounted onto linen. This will help not only to stabilize the paper, but also allows conservators to make any necessary restoration on the piece. The process, when done professionally, is museum-quality and fully reversible. European collectors (specifically the Swiss) prefer not to have their posters linen-backed. When it comes time to sell a vintage poster, there is not often a difference in value between those that are mounted and those that are not (although there are some exceptions to this rule).

One universally accepted “no-no” is to permanently adhere a poster to its backing. It was quite popular in the 1960s, ’70s and ’80s to have posters dry-mounted to a board so that they would lie flat in their frames. This process is irreversible and posters that have been dry-mounted tend to lose as much as 50% of their value when it comes time to sell.

Many, many posters mounted on linen on display for our August 3, 2016 auction of Vintage Posters.

Framing a poster behind glass is heavy and risks tearing the poster if the frame drops and the glass cracks. Using plexiglass is a less expensive, safer way to go. If you plan to hang your poster on a wall where it will be exposed to natural light you should also consider using UV (ultra-violet) plexi, which will prevent fading.

]]>What Sets A Chart Apart?https://www.swanngalleries.com/news/2018/01/what-sets-chart-apart/
Fri, 19 Jan 2018 23:12:04 +0000http://www.swanngalleries.com/news/?p=24563We asked specialist Caleb Kiffer to reminisce about some of the most interesting and important charts we’ve handled in the last few years. Why charts? We wanted to explore (pun…

]]>We asked specialist Caleb Kiffer to reminisce about some of the most interesting and important charts we’ve handled in the last few years. Why charts? We wanted to explore (pun intended) the relationship between a fixed written record–a chart–and something that is known for its inconstancy–the sea. For those who don’t know, a chart is a map that relates specifically to bodies of water. Charts provide information such as the depth of the water, where tides are especially variable, the location of sandbars that lurk below the surface, etc. More than maps, charts had to be kept meticulously up to date, as an unmarked sandbar could cost lives. Here is Caleb’s selection some influential landmarks in the history of charting the open seas:

William Norman’s atlas represents some of the earliest charts printed in the Americas. It provided the latest data, symbolically breaking Britain’s grasp on the coast. This chart in particular is interesting because of its unusual shape and the fact that provides eight engraved elevations of Connecticut as seen from the water. Other variants of this map include more information about the topography of the land instead. This appears to be the only example that includes the elevations ever to come to auction.

The Complete East-India Pilot, compiled by Robert Laurie and James Whittle, is the pinnacle of eighteenth-century navigational chart-making. It provided superbly beautiful and accurate charts containing all the information navigators required to sail from England to the trade ports of the East Indies and China. The charts show vast improvements upon existing data, supplemented with the most recent discoveries of the skilled British Admiralty and East India Company captains. It would have been used by merchants. One chart in this copy traces the route of two ships from Cape Town to Hong Kong in contemporary hand-color: Captain Henry Bond for the Royal Admiralty in 1792 and Captain Thomas Butler aboard the Walpole in 1794. The fact that this atlas was used on a sea voyage increases its value–most charts used on a ship would be damaged by constant wear and tear, and obviously would have been lost if the ship went down.

This very rare sea chart of Southeast Asia is one of the earliest English charts of the area, following those of John Seller and John Thornton with the geography benefitting from the previous experience of the Dutch business ventures into the region. The colors on the map were added by hand, and it boasts highlights in gold. Charts like this enabled the spread of British commerce throughout the region; local place names are included along the coast, but few, if any, depths are listed.

Finally, another example of a chart in action. This very rare chart of Hawaii by Aaron and Samuel Arrowsmith, was consulted in preparation of a voyage. It also reveals the discoveries by recent explorers such as Cook and Vancouver, advancing the accuracy in mapping what would become the Hawaiian Islands.

It was owned by Francis Post, a nineteenth-century whaling captain based in New Bedford, Massachusetts. While piloting his vessel, the Huntress, on her 1832-1836 voyage through the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, the captain is known to have been in the Hawaiian Islands. While the overall condition of the chart does not immediately suggest it was actually used aboard the Huntress, Post’s inscription–“Francis Post, June 1832”–two months prior to their August departure lends reason to consider the captain acquired this most accurate chart to prepare for, and consult during the voyage.

]]>This popular annual posters auction celebrates innovation in graphic design. On May 3 we will offer examples of British Modernism from the 1940s by Frederick Henri Kay Henrion, Patrick Cokayne Keely and Zéró (Hans Schleger). Visionary Georges Lepape is represented by an original maquette promoting a 1924 gala, as well as the poster for the Bal de la Couture Parisienne, 1925. More recent masterpieces include Günther Kieser’s iconic concert poster for The Doors and The Canned Heat, 1968.

]]>On May 30, 1968, Bertha Trujillo became the first woman awarded a doctorate of matadorship, the highest technical level achieved in bullfighting. The photographs appearing in our February 15 auction of Icons & Images: Photographs & Photobooks show her 12 years earlier, still struggling to find her footing, literally as well as figuratively.

The photographs, accompanied by a yellowed press release, are part of a press package sent by the Hamilton Wright publicity company to various publications, including LIFE, who ran a three-page spread on Bertha on April 16, 1956. At the time, she was a novice at just 26 years old. The article is harrowing–in one image, a bull nearly gores through her leg–and the text does not convey confidence in her prowess. She is described as “a lady bullfighter whose courage far outshines her skill.”

Bertha Trujillo avoiding a charge.

The press release included in the lotis much more sympathetic and impressed by her talent and gumption. It seems that LIFE took the story in another direction, and requested additional images for their article–primarily those showing Bertha struggling or defeated. At this stage in her career, Bertha won about every other fight. The author from Hamilton Wright states, “In the one she doesn’t ‘win,’ she takes a tremendous beating–she is bruised, bleeding and very often has bones splintered. And they don’t heal readily in a week. But she is booked for a ‘corrida’ (bull fight) next Sunday and she goes on–no matter what.”

Attempting to kill the bull.

As her skill and fame increased, Bertha adopted the “stage name” Morenita del Quindío (Brunette of the Quindio region). A native of Armenia, Colombia, she was even invited to compete in Spain, the mecca of the sport. She was known in the bullfighting world as the “Empress of the Rings.” She retired from active matadorship in 1991, and helped to found Santiago de Cali’s Escuela de Tauromaquia, or School of Bullfighting.

After a fight, Bertha is tired and hurt.

The violent, time-honored tradition of bullfighting spread from its native Spain to Latin America, tracing the encroachment of the Spanish empire. It has faced increasing opposition in recent years as concern for both human and taurine participants sparks global outrage. However, it is still seen as a vital part of local culture by its fans and practitioners.

Bertha died on November 7, 2011, of an infection relating to hip and leg injuries. She was 83.

]]>On March 29 we will offer Printed & Manuscript African Americana, an array of material that encompasses a wide range of the African-American experience, from letters by Frederick Douglass to his friend and fellow diplomat Ebenezer Bassett, to posters from the Civil Rights Movement and the Black Panthers. Highlights include a pair of slippers said to be made by legendary seamstress Elizabeth Keckley in 1865 for cabinet member Gideon Welles to wear at Lincoln’s second inauguration.

Several remarkable lots not previously seen at auction include an 1838 letter by the early African-American abolitionist David Ruggles, attempting to launch a Committee of Vigilance to support the Underground Railroad in Syracuse, NY, and a previously unknown poster for an appearance by Martin Luther King in Paris while on a fundraising tour for the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. The sale also includes a poignant 1854 letter from Moses Walker, an enslaved Georgia man, to his mother in North Carolina, asking after his brother and discussing the recent birth and death of his son. Important photographs bring the sale to life.

]]>A Look Inside the Catalogue: Autographshttps://www.swanngalleries.com/news/2018/01/look-inside-catalogue-autographs/
Mon, 15 Jan 2018 16:56:32 +0000http://www.swanngalleries.com/news/?p=24713Gracing this March 22 sale is a poem completed by Walt Whitman on his deathbed, transcribed by a secretary and signed, with holograph edits. It was his last poem, entitled A…

Diego Rivera’s scarce lithograph El sueño (La noche de los pobres), 1932, leads a vibrant section of Latin-American art in this dynamic sale. Opening the auction is a run of works by important Impressionist artists, with notable collaborative lithographs by Claude Monet and George W. Thornley. Also available are selections by modern European visionaries including Pablo Picasso’s elegant lithograph La Colombe, 1949, and unique watercolors by artists like Georges Braque. Headlining the American section are masterful etchings by Edward Hopper, following our record-setting sale of The Lonely House, 1923.

]]>This sale on March 8 will feature an extensive selection of early Spanish books on a variety of subjects including agriculture, heraldry and genealogy, history, horses, law, literature, medicine, theology and travel. Printed circa 1496-97, Arte de Ajedres by Luis de Lucena is the earliest surviving manual of chess, leading a sizable section of incunabula.

Scientific highlights include the first illustrated editions of two early astronomical texts: the 1478 Sphaera mundi by Johannes Sacrobosco, and the 1482 Poeticon Astronomicon by Caius Julius Hyginus. The travel section contains scarce works on missionary journeys to the East, particularly accounts of ill-fated ventures in Japan such as José Sicardo’s 1698 Christiandad del Japón.

Lot 113: Luis de Lucena, Arte de Ajedres, first edition of the earliest extant manual on modern chess, Salamanca, circa 1496-97.Estimate $10,000 to $15,000.

]]>The Top Five Fahrenheit 451shttps://www.swanngalleries.com/news/2018/01/top-5-fahrenheit-451s/
Thu, 04 Jan 2018 21:15:11 +0000http://www.swanngalleries.com/news/?p=24523According to our Literature specialist John D. Larson, there are five first editions of Fahrenheit 451 of interest to collectors. As with all important modern first editions, a set of criteria…

]]>According to our Literature specialist John D. Larson, there are five first editions of Fahrenheit 451 of interest to collectors.

As with all important modern first editions, a set of criteria should be met. A fine copy should not previously have belonged to a library, nor should it bear stains, tears or chips to the jacket that affect letters and anything else that differs from the way the book appeared on the day it first arrived in the store.

The value of a given copy is established via comparable copies previously seen at auction. Condition of binding, contents, and, of course, the dust jacket are critical determinants. Signed or inscribed copies bring a premium. It should be noted, however, that signed copies of first editions by Ray Bradbury are not scarce; he was a rather public figure, but early signatures are still especially appealing.

So, here are things to look for in the top five most desirable editions of Fahrenheit 451.

5. The first edition in England was published in 1954, one year after its release in the United States. Its red dust jacket is important to its value.

Ray Bradbury, Fahrenheit 451, first English edition, London, 1954. Sold November 14, 2017 for $423.

4. While not technically a first edition, the book released by the fine publishing company Limited Editions Club in 1982 is highly collectible. The edition consists of 2,000 copies, featuring one color lithograph and illustrations by Joe Mugnaini. It was issued without a dust jacket. The best copies of this edition are signed by both Bradbury and Mugnaini.

3. The first trade edition, published by Ballantine Books in 1953, should retain a fine dust jacket. The colors of the spine of the jacket should not be too faded, though even virtually pristine copies almost always have some sort of fading. Another prize would be a copy signed in the year of publication. Perhaps there exists a copy inscribed by Bradbury to Francois Truffaut, who directed the film version of the book; that would be newsworthy and command a very high premium.

Ray Bradbury, Fahrenheit 451, first edition, signed, New York, 1953. Sold November 14, 2017, for $5,200.

2. The limited first edition bound in asbestos is especially appealing to collectors because it is charmingly self-referential. The novel imagines a world in which reading is outlawed, and fire men are instructed to burn any books they find, as well as the houses where the books were kept. The title, Fahrenheit 451, refers to the temperature at which paper burns. Because it is bound in asbestos, this edition would not burn in the case of such a dystopia. This numbered edition of 200 was published without a dust jacket, leaving the binding exposed. This, in conjunction with the absorbent nature of asbestos, makes for a typically scruffy exterior. The whiter and crisper the cover, the more valuable your book could be.

1. The specially bound author’s edition consisted of 50 unnumbered copies was bound up specially for Bradbury. The tome is distinguished from the trade edition by the slightly different binding: under the slipcover, the special edition boasts gilt lettering embossed on red cloth. The trade edition’s cover is lettered in yellow. John notes that this is a “subtle distinction but a crucial issue point.” The copy in our May 15 auction comes from the estate of Stanley Simon, a private collector in Queens, and was inscribed to him by Bradbury in 1982.

]]>In our diamond anniversary year, we offered a star-studded roster of 30 auctions, setting nearly 100 records and introducing countless items to the market, including a previously unknown photograph of Harriet Tubman. Across a spectrum of media and spanning 500 years, our specialists worked tirelessly to bring these treasures together.

Totaling more than $2.5M, five of the top lots of this sale broke the artists’ previous auction records, all of which were set by Swann since the department’s inception ten years ago. Onlookers cheered as six lots exceeded $100,000, with David Hammons’s Untitled (Double Body Print), 1976, reaching $389,000. Hammons was an important assemblage artist working in L.A. He was represented in the sale by two unique multimedia works: in addition to the double body print, his Untitled (Body Print) was purchased for $161,000.

In this landmark sale, four works exceeded $100,000. An important nocturne by Henry Ossawa Tanner titled Flight into Egypt, circa 1910, was the highlight of the sale. The subject was a favorite motif of the artist, who took several trips to the Holy Land and was deeply inspired by the experience. The large oil painting was purchased by an institution for $341,000.

We ended the spring season with American Art, offering original works by artists living or working in the U.S. A magnificent oil painting by William Glackens, The Beach, Isle Adam, 1925-26,acheived the highest price at the house in 2017, reaching $581,000. The sale featured several works not previously seen at auction, including a recently rediscovered watercolor by John Marin.

A signed photograph of John F. Kennedy and Dwight D. Eisenhower taken by Elliot Erwitt topped this sale, which performed well overall, with 88% of items offered finding buyers. One highlight was an extraordinary four-page letter from Ernest Hemingway to his friend, film icon Marlene Dietrich, discussing the recent publication of The Old Man and the Sea, and expressing his love for her: “Please know I love you always and I forget you sometimes as I forget my heart beats. But it beats always.”

George Washington, Autograph Letter Signed, to his spymaster Benjamin Tallmadge, New Jersey, 1780. Sold November 7, 2017 for $40,000.

This sale featured the Jimmy Van Heusen Collection, offering works by the composer as well as important letters, musical quotations and manuscripts by some of the most influential musicians of the nineteenth- and twentieth centuries. Of the 76 lots offered from the collection, 93% found buyers, exceeding the high estimate for the section by more than $70,000. The first autograph musical quotations by Van Heusen ever to come to auction included the drafts for such hits as Call Me Irresponsible, which reached $9,375. The top lot of the sale was an autograph letter from George Washington to his spymaster, Benjamin Tallmadge, requesting intelligence at the height of the Revolutionary War. Written in November of 1780 from his headquarters in Wayne, New Jersey, concerning the British troop numbers and locations on Long Island, it sold for $40,000.

In a focused offering with just more than 300 lots, 92% of works found buyers, with particularly active bidding for Bibles, incunabula, and early manuscript material. Topping the sale was Lo libre del regiment dels princeps, Barcelona, 1480, a Catalan-language guide for princes by Aegidius Romanus, which sold for $50,000, above a high estimate of $15,000, a record for the work. The book, translated from the original Latin by Arnau Stranyol, is especially noteworthy as Catalan-language incunabula appear infrequently at auction, and this appears to be the fourth work ever published in that language.

This sale broke several auction records, and was topped by a complete privately printed edition of Seven Pillars of Wisdom, 1926, by T.E. Lawrence, the inspiration for the classic film Lawrence of Arabia. The stunning tome, bound in green leather, boasts 65 plates and color illustrations by contemporary artists. The present copy was inscribed by Lawrence and given to his dentist, Warwick James; it was purchased by a collector for $62,500.

More than two thirds of this auction was devoted to twentieth-century literature, including the top lot: the deluxe centenary limited edition set of 18 volumes comprising the works of Ian Fleming, the creator of James Bond. Each tome is ensconced in a custom leather binding reflecting its contents: Casino Royale features playing cards, while Octopussy is adorned with undulating tentacles. The set, celebrating what would have been Fleming’s 100th birthday, includes a selection of the author’s travel writings, previously unpublished stories and a copy of Chitty-Chitty-Bang-Bang. One of 26 lettered sets published in 2008, the work reached $30,000, tying the previous auction record.

Art, Press & Illustrated Books

Arthur Szyk, The Szyk Haggadah, limited first edition on vellum, signed, London, 1939. Sold June 13, 2017 for $17,500.

This sale offered a spectrum of books that doubled as objets d’art, with records for important twentieth-century works celebrating art and typography. The top lot of the sale was a signed and inscribed first edition Arthur Szyk’s Haggadah, 1939, printed on vellum with 14 full-page sumptuous color plates. The tome was purchased for $17,500. A rare first edition of Grapefruit, 1964, Yoko Ono’s first “event score,” doubled its high estimate to sell for $13,750, a record for the work.

In the department’s seventh consecutive sale to exceed $1M, we broke multiple established records for editions by important artists. The top lot of the sale was an important etching by David Hockney titled The Artist and Model, 1974, which was purchased for $52,500, above its high estimate of $30,000. Six of the seven offered lots by Hockney sold above or within their estimates, including the complete portfolio of Illustrations for Six Fairy Tales from the Brothers Grimm, 1970, with 39 etchings, some with aquatint, as well as an additional six etchings on handmade paper. The portfolio, in its original blue leather case, sold for $23,400, above a high estimate of $15,000.

In the department’s most encyclopedic offering of to date, works by Josef Albers, Jean Arp and Christo exceeded their estimates and set new auction records. The highlight of the sale was Jean-Michel Basquiat’s Untitled: Four Prints, 1983-2001, a set rarely seen complete at auction. The work, showcasing the visionary artist’s graffiti-inspired style, reached $200,000. Jean Arp’s Formes préadamites, 1945, sold for $50,000, far surpassing its estimate of $12,000.

Offering original works of art intended for publication, this sale finished with an 83% sell-through rate, and many works exceeded their high estimates. The top lot was the original watercolor for the cover of the first French edition of the third Babar book, Le Roi Babar, 1933, by Jean de Brunhoff. It was purchased by a collector for $40,000. A watercolor by de Brunhoff’s son Laurent, who carried on the Babar series after his father’s death, was also sold; Babar dans l’Île aux Oiseau, 1969, reached $7,000.

This auction was the department’s most successful to date, exceeding its high estimate and twice breaking its own record for the most expensive artwork sold. A set design for the musical Manhattan Mary by the studio of William Oden Waller topped the sale. The highly-detailed gouache with gold highlights, which served as the cover for the fall issue of The Trumpet, our biannual newsletter, barreled past its high estimate of $6,000, finally selling amid applause from the floor for $77,500. It was the highest price achieved by the department since its inception five years ago, an accomplishment made even more impressive by the fact that it had just been reset two hours before, with a watercolor by Ludwig Bemelmans, at $75,000. Featuring Madeline, Miss Clavel, and all the girls at the table, the instantly recognizable image served as the rear cover illustration for Madeline’s Christmas, 1956.

The first world atlas in the Armenian language reached more than five times its $6,000 high estimate to sell for $37,500, a record for the work. Hovhannes Amira Dadian created the atlas in the Armenian monastery on the Venetian island of San Lazzaro in 1849 in an effort to bring Western knowledge to his home country.

Richard Hakluyt, Novus Orbis, first printed use of “Virginia” on a map, Paris, 1587.Sold December 5, 2017 for $80,000.

The highlight of this sale was Richard Hakluyt’s 1587 map of the New World, Novus Orbis—the first to use the designations “Virginea” and “Nuevo Mexico.” It was one of a selection of duplicates from the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation Collection, originating in the William C. Wooldridge Map Collection, which was generously donated by the Virginia Cartographical Society in 2017. All proceeds from the sale of these lots are being used to support this important acquisition and the collections at Colonial Williamsburg. In its known first appearance at auction since 1917, the Hakluyt map brought $80,000.

Images & Objects: Photographs & Photobooks set multiple records for early and modern works, with 71% of works offered finding buyers. Nearly all of the offered lots by Edward S. Curtis sold above or within the estimate in this sale. Highlights included a striking portrait of Red Cloud, Oglala, 1905, which sold for $32,500, a record for the work, above a high estimate of $9,000.

Saul Leiter, Waiter, Paris, chromogenic print, 1959, printed 1990s.Sold October 19, 2017 for $25,000, a record for the work.

Art & Storytelling: Photographs & Photobooks illustrated the breadth of the photography market and the flexibility of the medium. Interest in vernacular photography was so high that the opening bid for many works exceeded the high estimate. One of the sale’s biggest surprises was a circa 1915 salesman’s album for the Eberhard Faber Pencil Company, containing 86 hand-colored silver prints of pencils, erasers and marketing displays, which sold for $10,625 to an institution, above a high estimate of $2,500. A new record was established for Saul Leiter, whose atmospheric chromogenic print Waiter, Paris, 1959, sold for $25,000, above a high estimate of $9,000.

This annual auction exceeded $1M for the first time in the department’s 20+ year history. The success was due, in part, to interest surrounding a carte-de-visite album from the 1860s that contained a previously unknown photograph of Harriet Tubman. The album topped the sale, selling for $161,000, above a pre-sale high estimate of $30,000. Our specialist discovered the photograph of Tubman in the album, compiled by Quaker abolitionist Emily Howland in the 1860s. The album contains 48 photographs, including 44 cartes-de-visite of noted abolitionists, politicians and friends of Howland.

This sale was the department’s tenth consecutive auction to exceed $700,000. The top lot was a Book of Mormon, though a more unusual highlight was a rare letter by Hernán Cortés to his property manager, instructing him to be hospitable to a visiting bishop, which was purchased for $32,500; no other letters from the conquistador have appeared at auction in the last 30 years.

This auction featured a trove of unique material, much of which had never previously been seen on the market. The top lot was an archive of 245 letters that spanned nearly a century by early frontier missionaries in Minnesota, which was sold to a private collector for $112,500—triple the pre-sale estimate, and the highest price ever realized for an archive at Swann.

Our auction of 19th & 20th Century Prints & Drawings exceeded $3M and broke ten auction records. Topping the sale was the rare deluxe edition of Marc Chagall’s portfolio Four Tales from the Arabian Nights, of which only 11 were printed. Previously, the set belonged to Kurt Wolff, publisher of Pantheon Books. The vibrant color lithographs include a 13th plate denoting the deluxe edition; still in its original case, it was purchased a collector for $269,000.

The fall season began with an auction featuring an unusually high number of original artworks, which broke multiple records and earned more than $2.6M. The top lot of the sale was a large black-and-white lithograph by Pablo Picasso of Françoise Gilot, titled Françoise sur fond gris, 1950, which sold for $125,000. Of the 49 works by the master offered in the sale, 75% found buyers, for a total of $389,590. The sale featured a cavalcade of original and unique works by marquee artists, led by Elephant Spatiaux, a 1965 watercolor by Salvador Dalí in his signature style, at $60,000. Lyonel Feininger’s atmospheric watercolor Space, 1954, reached $47,500.

Edward Hopper, The Lonely House, etching, 1923.Sold November 2, 2017 for $317,000, a record for a print by the artist.

This sale established a new auction record for any print by American master Edward Hopper. The extremely rare etching The Lonely House, 1923, sold for a record $317,000 to a buyer over the phone, above a high estimate of $200,000. The previous record for a print by the artist, set in 2012, was $80,000 lower. It was also the highest price for an etching ever sold by Swann Galleries. The sale also featured a special section of prints from the estate of American artist Will Barnet, 94% of which found buyers. Bidding was particularly competitive for figurative prints of women with pets in the flattened ukiyo-e-esque style for which Barnet is celebrated. Woman, Cat and String, 1964, is especially emblematic of the style: the square color woodcut sold for $4,750, above a high estimate of $1,800.

The top lot of this sale was the iconic Tournée du Chat Noir by Théophile-Alexandre Steinlen. The 1896 large-format poster was purchased after a neck-and-neck race by two phone bidders for $30,000, a record for the work. The auction also featured an enormous run of ski and winter posters, led by the breathtaking St. Moritz by Carl Moos.

This auction explored the development of twentieth-century design and its dissemination through posters. The top lot of the sale was Col Van Heusen, 1928, one of the most elegant Cubist-style designs created by Charles Loupot. The striking poster, which was intended to advertise men’s collars, displays some of the richest inking seen in the artist’s work; it sold for $50,000, far exceeding its pre-sale high estimate of $30,000. Works by Loupot performed well overall, with several claiming places in the top lots. The verdant 1923 advertisement for Voisin Automobiles reached $30,000, while his 1919 poster for Sato / Cigarettes Egyptiennes went to a collector for $7,500.

To commemorate the centennial anniversary of the U.S.’s entry in World War I, our summer sale featured propaganda from the era. However, the top lot of the sale was the iconic Keep Calm and Carry On, a rallying cry for Britons during World War II.

]]>The grand finale of our 2017 roster was a successful auction of Illustration Art on December 14. Highlights of the sale ranged from large-scale oil paintings to sentimental children’s characters to wry political commentary, with works dating from the middle of the nineteenth century to early 2017. The auction was the department’s most successful to date, exceeding its high estimate and twice breaking its own record for the most expensive artwork sold.

The runaway top lot was a spectacular set design for the musical Manhattan Mary by the studio of William Oden Waller. The highly-detailed gouache with gold highlights, which served as the cover for the fall issue of the house’s newsletter, barreled past its high estimate of $6,000, finally selling amid applause from the floor for $77,500. It was the highest price achieved by the department since its inception six years ago, an accomplishment made even more impressive by the fact that it had just been reset two hours before, with a watercolor by Ludwig Bemelmans, at $75,000. Featuring Madeline, Miss Clavel, and all the girls at the table, the instantly recognizable image served as the rear cover illustration for Madeline’s Christmas, 1956.

Another vibrant work by Bemelmans was Verandah Grill on the Queen Mary, a painting in gouache, watercolor and oil capturing the glamour of dining on the high seas. Bemelmans included his own hands in the image, drawing the gentleman seen in the center of the composition ($20,000).

Institutions were particularly active in the sale, winning nearly half of the top twenty lots. Christine von der Linn, our Senior Specialist for Illustration Art, attributed this trend to “the acknowledgement that works of art intended for publication, whether through advertisements or children’s books, have shaped our cultural heritage.” Of special note was the University Libraries at Saint Louis University’s purchase of Florence Pretz Smalley’s archive of material relating to the Billiken, a creature of her invention and the mascot of the university.

Lot 71: Jerry Pinkney, Brer Rabbit went into the house…, watercolor, pen and ink, for Further Tales of Uncle Remus, 1990.Sold December 14, 2017 for $27,500, a record for the artist.

The first watercolor to appear at auction from Jerry Pinkney’s popular Further Tales of Uncle Remus, 1990, was also an auction record for a work by the artist. The painting, appearing as a double spread in the book, shows Brer Rabbit and Brer Bear sitting together. It was purchased by an institution for $27,500. A Great Gallumphing Galoot!, a unique creature by Dr. Seuss, drawn on the front endpaper of Dr. Seuss’s ABC, 1963, sold to a collector $21,250, while a pencil sketch and finished watercolor for Maurice Sendak’s Bears Around the World, 1981, together reached $28,750.

Georges Lepape’s ethereal watercolor portrait of Madame Condé Nast in a Fortuny gown against a dark sky with gold highlights, Après la Tempête, served as the cover of Vogue at the end of World War One. Lepape inscribed the work to its subject, contributing to its sale price of $32,000.

Each of the six lots by Edward Gorey offered in the sale performed well, exceeding the high estimate for the run by more than $10,000. The highlights were a group of ten illustrations for The Monster Den, 1966, and Avoiding Christmas, a watercolor for a 1987 article in The New York Times ($11,250 and $10,313, respectively).

Lot 77: Richard Hakluyt, Novus Orbis, first printed use of “Virginia” on a map, Paris, 1587.Sold December 5, 2017 for $80,000.

The highlight of the sale was Richard Hakluyt’s 1587 map of the New World, Novus Orbis—the first to use the designations “Virginea” and “Nuevo Mexico.” It was one of a selection of duplicates from the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation Collection, originating in the William C. Wooldridge Map Collection, which was generously donated by the Virginia Cartographical Society in 2017. All proceeds from the sale of these lots will be used to support this important acquisition and the collections at Colonial Williamsburg. In its first appearance at auction since 1917, the Hakluyt map brought $80,000.

Maps represented more than half of the auction’s offerings. A masterwork of sixteenth-century Venetian cartography, Bolognino Zaltieri’s 1566 rendering of North America in the Lafreri style depicted the mythical northwest Strait of Anian, dividing the continents of Asia and North America; it sold for $47,500. Maps by Martin Waldseemüller performed well, with the captivating woodcut Tabula Terre Nove, 1513—the first map of the Americas to appear in an atlas—selling to a collector for $27,500. A hand-colored map of the same year brought $18,750. John Smith’s 1616 map of New England, called the “foundation map” of the region, realized $35,000.

Lot 331: John Gerrard Keulemans, Ornithological Watercolors, nine watercolors drawings of birds and one hand-colored lithograph, England, late 1800s. Sold December 5, 2017 for $6,500.

Not everything in the sale concerned cartography. A fine book of detailed watercolors of birds by John Gerrard Keulemans reached $6,500, above a high estimate of $2,500. Similarly, the ink-and-watercolor sketch Golden Eagle and Ptarmigan by Louis Agassiz Fuertes flew past its $3,000 high estimate to sell for $12,500 to a collector.

]]>Ingeborg Willy & the Making of Snow Whitehttps://www.swanngalleries.com/news/2017/12/ingeborg-willy-making-snow-white/
Thu, 07 Dec 2017 22:37:31 +0000http://www.swanngalleries.com/news/?p=24439A scrapbook, presumably kept by an inker at Walt Disney Studios, reveals much about the production of Snow White. The album is a highlight in our December 14 auction of Illustration…

]]>A scrapbook, presumably kept by an inker at Walt Disney Studios, reveals much about the production of Snow White. The album is a highlight in our December 14 auction of Illustration Art. In this video, Specialist Christine von der Linn tells the story of the scrapbook and the woman who most-likely made it, Ingeborg Willy.

﻿

Ingeborg Willy worked at Disney as an inker from 1936 to 1941. Using cotton gloves, she would carefully lay a sheet of celluloid over the graphite drawings and trace the outlines in ink, before the drawings would go to the painters to be finalized.

The materials in the scrapbook span the project from its inception to its accolades in the press after its release. She kept invitations to staff events, newspaper clippings, twenty original drawings and camera directions, as well as photographs of her colleagues and friends, many of whom were fellow inkers in the all-female Ink and Paint Department.

Also in the scrapbook is a single frame of Moviola film. Before the drawings went to the inkers, they were filmed and played on an old projector called a Moviola so that Disney and his lead animators could analyze the movement from one segment to the next. If the segment was not up to Disney’s perfectionist standards, the drawings would be sent back to the animators for corrections. The notes on the detailed sheet in the scrapbook were taken while Disney was reviewing the Moviola footage of the scene, “Love’s First Kiss.” One of the notes reads ‘Round glass – no petals on coffin.’ This suggests that an earlier iteration of the scene neglected to consider the physical realities of objects falling and accumulating on a curved surface, which probably obscured Snow White. The obsessive drive immortalized in these notes encompasses just 22 seconds of screen time.

Lot 240: Scrapbook relating to the production of Snow White & the Seven Dwarfs, presumed to be compiled by Ingeborg Willy, with 20 original drawings, circa 1937. Estimate $7,000 to $10,000.

Exactly one week after this auction, December 21st, 2017, will mark 80 years since the film’s premiere in 1937. Snow White was an instant success and earned $8 million dollars during its initial release – an astounding figure for a country in economic turmoil.

]]>Daffydils: A Cartoon Festschrifthttps://www.swanngalleries.com/news/2017/11/daffydils-cartoon-festschrift/
Thu, 30 Nov 2017 21:34:12 +0000http://www.swanngalleries.com/news/?p=24388Festschrifts, usually academic in nature, can also be jovial. An exceptional example, coming to auction in our December 14 sale of Illustration Art, features contributions from some of the greatest…

]]>Festschrifts, usually academic in nature, can also be jovial. An exceptional example, coming to auction in our December 14 sale of Illustration Art, features contributions from some of the greatest cartoonists of the early twentieth century, in their recognizable styles.

The volume was presented in 1911 to the American cartoonist and humor writer, editor and radio personality, Harry Hershfield. He was well known for his popular radio shows, including “Stop Me If You’ve Heard This One” and “Can You Top This?” and for producing his own acclaimed comic strips Desperate Desmond and Abie the Agent. The cartoonists whose work fills the book were primarily employed by William Randolph Hearst’s The New York Journal.

The cover was designed by veteran cartoonist Tad Dorgan, a social satirist and regular contributor to Hearst’s newspapers. The title, Daffydils, comes from his popular humor column. He was known primarily for his sports writing and cartoons following the activities of various dogs, most famously a fluffy white dog named Judge Rummy. Through his regular columns and cartoons, Dorgan coined numerous phrases still in use today, including “the cat’s meow,” “dumbbell” and “for crying out loud.” It’s not clear why he dropped the second l from the title of the festschrift.

The first page of the book was signed by George Herriman, who included depictions of his most famous creations, Krazy Kat and the mouse Ignatz. The characters break the third wall by referring to their presence in a book intended for a rival cartoonist, but Herriman inscribed the drawing “To Old Kid Hash,” a nickname for Hershfield. 1911 was the same year Krazy Kat and Ignatz earned a weekly place in The New York Journal. Though his work was vastly influential during his lifetime, it was not until 25 years after Herriman’s death in 1944 that his birth certificate was discovered to list him as “colored,” revitalizing interest in his oeuvre.

[Charles] Schulz got turned on to “Krazy Kat” right after World War II, he said, and it “did much to inspire me to create a feature that went beyond the mere actions of ordinary children.” Theodor Geisel (Dr. Seuss), whose animal characters strongly resemble Herriman’s, told a biographer, “At its best, the comic strip is an art form of such terrific wumpf! that I’d much rather spend any evening of any week rereading the beautifully insane sanities of George Herriman’s Krazy Kat than to sit myself down in some opera house to hear some smiling Irish tenor murdering Pagliacci.” The iconoclastic Robert Crumb called Herriman the “Leonardo da Vinci of comics,” while the ambitious [Art] Spiegelman argued that Krazy Kat “crossed all kinds of boundaries, between high and low, between vulgar and genteel.”

Winsor McCay stands out here for his meticulous Art Nouveau style. McCay’s most famous character was a young boy named Little Nemo, whose fantastical dreams took him on a new adventure in each strip. For Hershfield, McCay illustrated the cartoonist’s daily plight: “I have everything in the world I want except for an Idea!!”

]]>Schedel’s Map: The Last View of the Old Worldhttps://www.swanngalleries.com/news/2017/11/hartmann-schedel-last-view-old-world/
Tue, 28 Nov 2017 21:13:46 +0000http://www.swanngalleries.com/news/?p=24397A historic map shows us where we’ve been, not only geographically but also in terms of the extent of our knowledge, our beliefs and even our technology. Two works coming…

]]>A historic map shows us where we’ve been, not only geographically but also in terms of the extent of our knowledge, our beliefs and even our technology. Two works coming up for auction in our December 5 sale of Maps & Atlases, Natural History & Color Plate Books illustrate the state of mapmaking in a crucial time in human history, and how knowledge changes the way the world looks.

According to the University of Cambridge’s Library, Liber Chronicarum, more popularly known as the Nuremberg Chronicle is “one of the most important German incunables and the most extensively illustrated book of the fifteenth century.” Through 1,809 woodcut illustrations of events, as well as views and topographies, the work tells the history of the world through the lens of the Bible. It was written in Latin by doctor and humanist Hartmann Schedel, and printed by Albrecht Dürer’s godfather, Anton Koberger, in 1493. Another edition came out later in the same year, translated into vernacular German by George Alt.

The innovative work is set up in such a way that illustrations and text appeared in concert on the same page, and appeared to interact. Two maps were used to illustrate the text: one of the known world, and one of Germany. The map of the world is especially interesting because, being printed in 1493, Christopher Columbus had just barely returned from his journey; it is one of the last maps of the known world to be published without the Americas. Additionally, according to Queens’ College Library, it was “one of only three fifteenth-century maps showing Portuguese knowledge of the Gulf of Guinea of about 1470.”

The map in question presents a Ptolemaic projection of the world, based on the first-century writings of Ptolemy. Beyond its geographical points of interest, the map is flanked to the left by a cast of bizarre characters, including a snake-necked man, that one might expect to find at the edges of the world.

In an exhibition of the Nuremberg Chronicles at Vassar College, Professor Ronald Patkus suggests in the catalogue that dwindling sales of the Schedel edition could have been the result of professional undercutting: “Between 1496 and 1500, Johann Schönsperger produced three editions: two in German, and one in Latin. These books followed the Nuremberg printings very closely in terms of both text and illustration, but they were offered in a smaller format (quarto), with smaller type and newly-made illustrations. Schönsperger’s efforts were not illegal because no copyright laws existed at the time, but they reveal the vagaries of early printing, where possibility for one could mean difficulty for another.”

The Schönsperger edition includes a greatly reduced version of Schedel’s world map. Though only about a quarter of the size of the original, the miniaturized map loses little of its detail. However, the left-hand panel of odd creatures is left off.

According to our Maps & Atlases Specialist Caleb Kiffer, “The New World did not appear on a printed map until the publication of Giovanni Conarini’s world map in 1506, showing Cuba and Hispaniola adjacent to Japan. This is known to exist in only one example. In 1507 Johann Ruysch published an engraved world map showing much the same geography, however it had a larger print run as the map is very rare, but still available.”

]]>In our most encyclopedic offering of Contemporary Art to date, the November 16 auction saw active bidding, with works by Josef Albers, Jean Arp and Christo exceeding their estimates and setting new auction records.

After several minutes of intense bidding, surrealist Jean Arp’s Formes préadamites, 1945, sold for $50,000, far surpassing its estimate of $12,000. Though the title of the abstract cherry wood relief mounted on linen-wrapped board refers to the belief that human beings existed before the biblical Adam, part of Arp’s potent brand of surrealism relied on supplying his works with nonsensical titles. Works by Arp in the sale performed well, with five of the six additional lots, all prints, finding buyers.

The highlight of the sale was Jean-Michel Basquiat’s Untitled: Four Prints, 1983-2001, a set rarely seen complete at auction. The work, showcasing the visionary artist’s graffiti-inspired style, reached $200,000.

Lot 327: Jean-Michel Basquiat, Untitled: Four Prints, complete set of four color screenprints, 1983-2001. Sold November 16, 2017 for $200,000.

The original maquette in acrylic on canvas of Gene Davis’s Signal, 1973, for the same-titled color screenprint currently in the collections of museums internationally, sold over the phone for $32,500.

Eis 2, 2003, a monumental color screenprint by Gerhard Richter in 41 colors, sold for $50,000. Another recent German Expressionist highlight was Anima Mundi 18-3, 2010, Imi Knoebel’s set of three collaged acrylic on plastic film mounted to aluminum, which reached $18,750.

Works by Josef Albers continue to attract buyers, with ninety percent of the lots by the artist offered sold. Of those, three of the works more than doubled their previous auction records. Wide Light, a 1962 color screenprint in the boldly vibrant geometric style for which the artist is known, reached $3,500, smashing the previous record of $1,500. In the same style, Porta Negra, 1965, nearly tripled its established $2,000 record at $5,750. The record for an unusual black and white graphic lithograph titled Interim, 1942, was $3,750; it is now $6,500. From the same series, Graphic Tectonics, came the dizzying lithograph Prefatio, which sold for $9,750.

Lot 248: Christo, Wrapped Book Modern Art, book wrapped in polyethylene with twine and cord, 1978.Sold November 16, 2017 for $22,500 .

The auction debut of El Anatsui’s Pewter Variation, 2015, a work combining print, sculpture and collage, netted $16,250. The highlight in a run of works by Jeff Koons was the auction debut of Balloon Rabbit (Red), 2017 ($16,250). All five works by Ellsworth Kelly sold, led by the monumental color screenprint Blue, Yellow and Red Squares, 1970-71, which brought $18,750.

Two elaborate and amusing “chocolate samplers” by David Gilhooly—with frogs and other surprises disguised as truffles—crossed the block as bidding quickly exceeded the high estimates for both the 5 lb. Sampler and 10 lb. Sampler (each 1989, $4,250 and $7,020, respectively).

Lot 281: David Gilhooly, Gilhooly 5 lb. Sampler, set of nine glazed ceramics in a fabricated box, 1989.Sold November 16, 2017 for $4,250.

]]>Records & Results: 19th & 20th Century Literaturehttps://www.swanngalleries.com/news/2017/11/records-results-19th-20th-century-literature-4/
Thu, 16 Nov 2017 19:08:40 +0000http://www.swanngalleries.com/news/?p=24413Our auction of 19th & 20th Century Literature on November 14 offered a veritable library of scarce first editions and inscriptions by authors from the last two centuries. More than…

]]>Our auction of 19th & 20th Century Literature on November 14 offered a veritable library of scarce first editions and inscriptions by authors from the last two centuries. More than two thirds of the sale was devoted to twentieth-century literature, with myriad genres represented among the highlights.

Topping the sale was the deluxe centenary limited edition set of 18 volumes comprising the works of Ian Fleming, the creator of James Bond. Each tome is ensconced in a custom leather binding reflecting its contents: Casino Royale features playing cards, while Octopussy is adorned with undulating tentacles. The set, celebrating what would have been Fleming’s one-hundredth birthday, includes a selection of the author’s travel writings, previously unpublished stories and a copy of Chitty-Chitty-Bang-Bang. One of 26 lettered sets published in 2008, the work reached $30,000, tying the previous auction record.

Works by William Faulkner performed well, selling 100% of the lots offered. An association copy of the first edition of his first book, The Marble Faun, 1924, signed and inscribed by Faulkner and his mentor Phil Stone to Dorothy Wilcox, was especially important because its inscription was specifically referenced in Joseph Blotner’s Faulkner: A Biography, 1974 ($22,500).

Lot 143: Anne Frank, Het Achterhuis, first edition, in first state jacket, Amsterdam, 1947. Sold November 14, 2017 for $18,200,a record for the work.

An auction record was established for Het Achterhuis, known in English as The Diary of Anne Frank. The true first edition of the iconic work, in the exceedingly rare unrestored dust jacket showing the author’s name in yellow rather than blue, sold to a collector for $18,200.

Each of the four works by Philip K. Dick offered found buyers, with three of those surpassing their previous auction records. The cover lot for the sale, a signed first edition of World of Chance, 1956, reached $7,250, a record for the work, above a high estimate of $4,000. The stand-out lot was the first edition of The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch, 1965, inscribed by Dick: it far exceeded its high estimate of $3,000, finally selling for $16,250, a record for the work.

Lot 110: Benjamin Graham, The Intelligent Investor, first edition, in dust jacket, New York, 1949.Sold November 14, 2017 for $8,750.

The auction debut of The Intelligent Investor, by Benjamin Graham, was well-received: financiers competed for the first printing of the first edition, in the original dust jacket, achieving $8,750, over a high estimate of $6,000.

]]>Arthur Luiz Piza, a Brazilian mixed media artist trained in Paris, leads an ever-growing section of Latin American art in our biannual auctions of Contemporary Art. An especially unusual piece by the visionary is a highlight in our November 16 sale. The following notes from the catalogue shed light on his life and process.

Piza relocated to Paris in 1951, where he lived and worked for most of his career. During his initial years in Paris, he trained under the master printmaker Johnny Friedlaender, adapting his style to the capabilities and demands of intaglio processes. Following this instruction, Piza began to use thicker plates than was typical for etchings, in order to make deeper, gouged incisions. This resulted in a three-dimensional textural quality in his printed works, as seen in Soleil rouge. He was awarded the National Engraving Prize early in his career, in 1959, for his innovations.

In addition to his printed oeuvre, Piza experimented widely with varied media, pushing the boundary between works on paper, painting and sculpture. His collage works from the 1960s, like Sans titre, incorporated anything from traditional material such as colored paper to more radical substances like sand. He worked on all forms of supports, including canvas, wood and cardboard. Piza expanded the technique to a sculpture, moving beyond two-dimensional work to incorporate issues of space and perception in his work. He threaded a consistent visual vocabulary through his prints, collages and sculpture that derived from his interest in netting and spatial relationships.

Piza initially exhibited his work in the inaugural São Paulo Bienal in 1951, preceding his move to Paris. Over the years, he exhibited his work at such esteemed venues as the Venice Bienale, Bienal de la Habana and Documenta. Piza’s work is in the collections of many institutions including The Museum of Modern Art and the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York, as well as the Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris. He passed away in 2017 after a lifetime of rich artistic production.

]]>Children’s Literature for Adultshttps://www.swanngalleries.com/news/2017/11/childrens-literature-adults/
Mon, 13 Nov 2017 16:33:53 +0000http://www.swanngalleries.com/news/?p=24339Children’s literature is a perennially popular genre. We were all children once, and the antics of Willy Wonka and imagination of Max shaped our early lives in a way that…

]]>Children’s literature is a perennially popular genre. We were all children once, and the antics of Willy Wonka and imagination of Max shaped our early lives in a way that few things did. Our November 14 auction of 19th & 20th Century Literature features an especially strong selection of beloved signed first editions that will lead you down memory lane.

Lot 73: Maurice Sendak, Where the Wild Things Are, first edition, signed and inscribed, with full-length drawing of Max, New York, 1963. Estimate $10,000 to $15,000.

It is extremely rare to find full-body portraits of Maurice Sendak’s most iconic protagonist, Max of Where the Wild Things Are. This Max graces the inside of a first edition of his story, retaining the original dust jacket with no mention of the Caldecott Medal it would go on to receive.

The most famous and tasty work from the acclaimed oeuvre of Roald Dahl, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, 1964, teaches lessons about greed and integrity. The present copy comes in a custom-made cloth slipcase.

It is extremely rare to find signed copies of Anna Sewell’s magnum opus, Black Beauty, a novel told from the perspective of a horse in London’s cab system. The book was intended to highlight the plight of animals and was influential in raising animal welfare standards in Victorian London. Sadly, Sewell died just months after the work was published.

Signed first editions of Stuart Littleare hard to find–more so a finely bound presentation copy with an endearing inscription. The present copy is signed, “For Dr. George Waterman – who asked about my preoccupation with mice. Best regards from Andy White.” Though his given name was Elwyn Brooks, the nickname “Andy” was given to him at Cornell.

]]>Records & Results: Autographshttps://www.swanngalleries.com/news/2017/11/records-results-autographs-3/
Thu, 09 Nov 2017 19:08:23 +0000http://www.swanngalleries.com/news/?p=24382Our auction on November 7 saw fine results for Autographs by important historical figures in a variety of fields, from government to science to music. The total of $662K exceeded the…

]]>Our auction on November 7 saw fine results for Autographs by important historical figures in a variety of fields, from government to science to music. The total of $662K exceeded the estimate for the sale as a whole by almost $100,000, as lot after lot hammered above estimate.

The highlight of the sale was the Jimmy Van Heusen Collection, offering manuscripts by the composer as well as important letters, musical quotations and manuscripts by some of the most influential composers of the nineteenth- and twentieth centuries. Of the 76 lots offered from the collection, 93% found buyers, exceeding the high estimate for the section by more than $70,000. The top lot of the collection was an autograph musical quotation signed by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, showing nine bars from the first movement of Serenade for String Orchestra in C Major, 1888, which sold for $27,500, above a high estimate of $15,000. The first autograph musical quotations by Van Heusen ever to come to auction included the drafts for such hits as Swinging on a Star and Love and Marriage ($6,750 and $7,000, respectively). Each of the seven lots by Van Heusen sold well above their estimates, with the working draft of Call Me Irresponsible reaching $9,375, above a high estimate of $2,000. The proceeds from the sale of the Collection will benefit Cazenovia College, which Van Heusen attended when it was a high school.

Lot 7: George Washington, Autograph Letter Signed, to his spymaster Benjamin Tallmadge, New Jersey, 1780. Sold November 7, 2017 for $40,000.

The top lot of the sale was a letter from George Washington to his spymaster, Benjamin Tallmadge, requesting intelligence at the height of the Revolutionary War. It was written in November of 1780 from his headquarters in Wayne, New Jersey, concerning the British troop numbers and locations on Long Island. It sold for $40,000.

A strong selection of autographs by scientists was led by a signed photograph of Sigmund Freud by Halberstadt, signed & inscribed to American psychoanalyst Horace W. Frink, 1922, which sold for $20,000. A pair of photographic portraits signed by Albert Einstein and his wife, Elsa, reached $12,500.

]]>Records & Results: Old Master Through Modern Printshttps://www.swanngalleries.com/news/2017/11/records-results-old-master-through-modern-prints/
Sat, 04 Nov 2017 18:08:55 +0000http://www.swanngalleries.com/news/?p=24373A new auction record for any print by American master Edward Hopper was established at our auction of Old Master Through Modern Prints on November 2. The extremely rare etching The…

]]>A new auction record for any print by American master Edward Hopper was established at our auction of Old Master Through Modern Prints on November 2. The extremely rare etching The Lonely House, 1923, sold for a record $317,000 to a buyer over the phone, above a high estimate of $200,000. The previous record for a print by the artist, set in 2012, was $80,000 lower. It was also the highest price for an etching ever sold by Swann Galleries.

Lot 304: Edward Hopper, The Lonely House, etching, 1923.Sold November 2, 2017 for $317,000, a record for a print by the artist.

All three works by Hopper in the sale found buyers. Les Poilus, an extremely rare 1915-18 etching of French infantrymen, reached $42,500, above a high estimate of $20,000, a record for the work.

Swann Galleries holds the top six auction prices for prints by Martin Lewis. In Thursday’s auction, the house beat its own record for Relics (Speakeasy Corner), 1928, one of the artist’s most iconic works. The work sold for $55,000, surpassing the previous benchmark established in 2016.

Several additional image records were established, including $65,000 for Rembrandt van Rijn’s Self-Portrait with Cap Pulled Forward, a circa 1631 etching. A record was also achieved for Arbre, 1892, an enigmatic lithograph by Odilon Redon ($47,500).

The important first edition of Francisco José de Goya’s Los Caprichos, circa 1799, lampooning the Spanish aristocracy and clergy, was sold for $106,250. Approximately 300 copies of the bound set of 80 etchings were produced in the first edition, before Goya withdrew the series from sale for fear of retribution. Few survive, as only 27 were sold and most of the rest destroyed; the copy offered lacked only one etching.

The sale featured a special section of prints from the estate of American artist Will Barnet, 94% of which found buyers. Multiple bidders were on the phones for the duration of the run of 31 works, sending many prices past their estimates. Bidding was especially competitive for three figurative prints of women with pets in the flattened ukiyo-e-esque style for which Barnet is celebrated. Woman, Cat and String, 1964, is especially emblematic of the style: the square color woodcut sold for $4,750, above a high estimate of $1,800. The 1975 color screenprint The Book and lithograph Silent Seasons—Summer, 1974, also performed well ($4,000 and $3,250, respectively).

Browse the catalogue for complete results.The next auction of Old Master Through Modern Prints at Swann Galleries will be held in Spring 2018. For more information or consign quality materials, contact Todd Weyman at tweyman@swanngalleries.com.

Jimmy Van Heusen was an American composer of popular songs for musical theater, radio, film and television, whose music is best known from performances by Frank Sinatra, Bing Crosby and others. Among his most-loved songs are Love and Marriage, High Hopes and All the Way, the original musical manuscripts for which are featured in the sale. He won four Oscars over the course of his career and was one of the first ten members inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame when it formed in 1971.

According to The New York Times, “Sinatra recorded 76 songs by Mr. Van Heusen, more than by any other composer.” The article adds that Van Heusen “played a significant role in the resurgence of Mr. Sinatra’s career after a slump in the early 1950’s. Love and Marriage, … The Tender Trap, All the Way and High Hopes became major hits for the singer, whose albums include generous selections of Van Heusen material.” In addition, the two were close friends and Van Heusen was buried in Sinatra’s family plot.

The Collection includes not only the original musical manuscripts of his own hits, but also many autograph musical quotations and letters by some of the most influential composers of classical music from the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Here are a few of the classical highlights:

Above is an Autograph Musical Quotation dated and signed by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, showing nine bars from the first movement of Serenade for String Orchestra in C Major, signed March 21, 1888 in London, where he would perform the piece at St. James’s Hall the following day. Also available is a letter from Tchaikovsky to dramatic agent Edmund Gerson, declining to meet with him because of a “previous engagement” in New York, which we believe to be the opening of Carnegie Hall. In 1891, shortly after this letter was written, Tchaikovsky traveled to New York to inaugurate the opening of Carnegie Hall, where he conducted his Coronation March on May 5, 1891.

Lot 207: Igor Stravinsky, Two Autograph Musical Quotations on same sheet, one signed, Rite of Spring and Berceuse from The Firebird, New York, 6 February 1935.Estimate $2,000 to $3,000.

In 1967, Van Heusen donated his collection to Cazenovia College in Cazenovia, NY, where he was a student when it operated as a high school. Proceeds from the sale of the collection will benefit the College.

]]>Works from Will Barnet’s Estate at Auctionhttps://www.swanngalleries.com/news/2017/11/will-barnet-estate/
Wed, 01 Nov 2017 19:40:26 +0000http://www.swanngalleries.com/news/?p=24296American artist Will Barnet is known for his intimate, foreshortened views of women with cats, but his oeuvre, spanning nearly a century, reveals a diverse and multifaceted artist who transcended…

]]>American artist Will Barnet is known for his intimate, foreshortened views of women with cats, but his oeuvre, spanning nearly a century, reveals a diverse and multifaceted artist who transcended stylistic trends. Coming to auction for the first time are works from Barnet’s estate, with examples from each of his major stylistic periods, in our November 2 sale of Old Master Through Modern Prints.

The selection of prints is especially notable for its wealth of rare examples of Barnet’s early social realist work, produced for the graphic arts division of the WPA, Federal Art Project in New York, producing lithographs and etchings of factory workers, farm laborers and urban dwellers. His street views of New York’s working poor reflect the popular Ashcan School style epitomized in the work of George Bellows and John Sloan.

Barnet began to experiment with abstraction in the 1940s. He never broached the barrier into full-on abstraction, always leaving some hint of figuration in the composition. During an October 26 talk at Swann Galleries, the artist’s daughter Ona Barnet recalled that her father would take her through art museums why every painting is abstract.

Barnet’s abstraction became more expressive through the 1950s, incorporating gestural forms into his works. Images like Play, 1952, show his attention turning more toward the domestic scenes and home life for which he would become known.

By the mid-1960s, Barnet’s style had matured. His works were populated with women at rest or playing with domestic animals. Evident are the influences of Renaissance painting, traditional Japanese color woodcuts and American Pop Art. Barnet continued to operate and experiment in this style for the next 50 years.

]]>Our annual auctions of Rare & Important Travel Posters are destinations in and of themselves. On October 26, we offered more spectacular examples that embodied a century’s worth of technological development.

The top lot of the sale was Adolphe Mouron Cassandre’s promotional image for the maiden voyage of the Normandie, 1935, one of the most iconic posters of all time. It was purchased by a bidder in the room for $20,000. A fine selection of early ocean liner images opened the sale, as the earliest form of mass leisure transportation. A rare circa-1911 depiction of the White Star Line’s sister ships Olympic and Titanic, likely published before they were launched, reached $9,750.

Several long-standing auction records were broken, both for artists and individual works. Willem Frederick ten Broek’s poster advertising an ocean liner cruise to the 1939 New York World’s Fair, featuring the iconic Trylon and Perisphere against a Deco skyline of lower Manhattan, sold for $9,750, a record for the artist. Making its auction debut was By the North Shore Line, a 1923 advertisement for the Chicago Rapid Transit Company by Ervine Metzl, described by Nicholas D. Lowry, Director of Vintage Posters at Swann Galleries, as “arguably the most progressive American poster artist of his time.” The work reached $9,750, a record for the artist. Additional records went to Earl Horter, whose sepia view of Grand Central Terminal, showing cars zipping across the promenade, 1927, reached a record $6,000. A dramatic circa 1952 image by Frank Soltesz, Fly TWA To and Across America, set a new record for the artist at $6,500. An unusual work by Roger Broders, Alger / La Ville Blanche, 1920, broke its previous record when it sold to a collector for $4,680.

The biggest surprise of the sale was the Official Yogi Bear Map of Jellystone Park, 1961, showing the locations of such amusing landmarks as “Old Faceful” and “Yogi Has Done Wrong.” Above a modest estimate of $400 to $600, the brightly colored work reached $1,375.

]]>Marvel at Early Aviation Posters from 1910https://www.swanngalleries.com/news/2017/10/marvel-early-aviation-1910/
Wed, 25 Oct 2017 15:21:21 +0000http://www.swanngalleries.com/news/?p=24262The development of manned flight from hot air balloon to heavier-than-air machines was recorded and disseminated to the public via promotional posters. Some of the most influential works from this…

]]>The development of manned flight from hot air balloon to heavier-than-air machines was recorded and disseminated to the public via promotional posters. Some of the most influential works from this crucial time in the history of aviation will be coming to auction in our October 26 sale of Rare & Important Travel Posters.

In 1910, seven years after the Wright Brothers took to the air, aviation expositions began to pop up all over Europe. One of the most important such festivals was held from June 19-26 in Rouen, France, in which twelve airplanes were aloft simultaneously (imagine that!).

The Grande Semaine d’Aviation, as it was called, was primarily advertised by two posters issued the same year, both emphasizing the sheer impossibility of a person sailing through the clouds.

Charles Rambert‘s exuberant poster emphasizes new technology outpacing the old. The gargoyles atop the famous spires of Rouen Cathedral–one of which is engulfed in scaffolding–recoil as they see a pilot whiz by.

Photomontage of Leon Morane swooping around the Rouen Cathedral. Courtesy of Le Blog de Rouen.

In a curious instance of life imitating art, one of the more memorable moments of the event was when the pilot Leon Morane “caused a sensation by flying around the venerable cathedral in the heart of the city,” according to the catalogue for The National Air & Space Museum – Smithsonian Institution’s 2000 exhibition titled Looping the Loop: Posters of Flight.

In Georges Villa‘s interpretation of the event, several flying machines, their wings illuminated by the fiery orange of the setting sun, soar above Rouen Cathedral and the city’s winding river and hills. In the center of the image is the personification of flying machines and the “Spirit of Flight” herself, perhaps intended to remind viewers of Joan of Arc, who was famously executed at Rouen in 1431.

]]>On October 19 our sale of Art & Storytelling: Photographs & Photobooks combined works spanning the lifetime of the medium into an auction intended to “highlight the interrelationships between fine art, documentary and vernacular photographs,” according to Daile Kaplan, Vice President and Director of Photographs & Photobooks. Ms. Kaplan has long been an advocate for the inclusion of vernacular works and photobooks in the fine art sphere, and organized the first auctions devoted to those subjects in 2014 and 2006, respectively. She added, “We’re successfully building a new, broader market of crossover and emerging collectors who enjoy discovering the ways in which art tells a story.”

Interest in vernacular photography was so high that the opening bid for many works exceeded the high estimate. One of the sale’s biggest surprises was a circa 1915 salesman’s album for the Eberhard Faber Pencil Company, containing 86 hand-colored silver prints of pencils, erasers and marketing displays, which sold for $10,625 to an institution, above a high estimate of $2,500. Documentary and photojournalism works were included in this category, with Margaret Bourke-White’s silver print Gold Miners Nos. 1139 and 5122, 1950, for a Life magazine story about apartheid in South Africa, reaching $17,500.

Lot 11: John Thomson (credited to), album with 67 albumen prints of South Asia and China, circa 1862-72.Sold October 19, 2017 for $45,000.

The highlight of the sale was an extraordinarily scarce 1862-72 album of 67 photographs depicting South Asia and China credited to John Thomson, which sold for $45,000. Other notable photobooks included Volume X from Edwards S. Curtis’s seminal work, The North American Indian, 1915, and the deluxe limited edition of Ansel Adams’s Yosemite and the Range of Light, 1979 ($12,500 and $20,000, respectively).

Lot 292: BAM Photography Portfolio I, complete portfolio with photographs by Richard Avedon, Nan Goldin, Annie Leibovitz, Richard Prince, Cindy Sherman and others, New York and San Francisco, 1993-2000, printed 2000.Sold October 19, 2017 for $26,250, a record for the work.

Several long-standing auction records were broken for important works, including the complete BAM Photography Portfolio I, 2000, with photographs by Richard Avedon, Nan Goldin, Annie Leibovitz, Richard Prince, Cindy Sherman and others, which sold for $26,250 to a collector. A new record was also established for Saul Leiter, whose atmospheric chromogenic print Waiter, Paris, 1959, sold for $25,000, above a high estimate of $9,000.

Lot 281: Saul Leiter, Waiter, Paris, chromogenic print, 1959, printed 1990s. Sold October 19, 2017 for $25,000, a record for the work.

Another highlight was a 1981 printing of Roy DeCarava’s Dancers, 1956, which nearly doubled its estimate, selling to a collector for $37,500. The dramatic work depicts a darkened Harlem dance hall, where one imagines the subject of Horst P. Horst’s 1987 silver print, Round the Clock III, New York, would feel right at home ($15,600, a record for the work). Iconic works by Diane Arbus, Robert Frank, Ormond Gigli and Irving Penn were also met with head-to-head bidding.

]]>Our October 17 auction of Early Printed, Medical, Scientific & Travel Books garnered eager interest from bibliophiles, exceeding the sale’s high estimate and earning more than half a million dollars. In a focused offering with just more than 300 lots, 92% of works found buyers, with particularly active bidding for Bibles, incunabula, and early manuscript material.

The top lot of the sale was Lo libre del regiment dels princeps, Barcelona, 1480, a Catalan-language guide for princes by Aegidius Romanus, which sold for $50,000, above a high estimate of $15,000, a record for the work. The book, translated from the original Latin by Arnau Stranyol, is especially noteworthy as Catalan-language incunabula appear so infrequently at auction, and this appears to be the fourth work ever published in that language. Another highlight was the first edition in the original Greek of Herodotus’s Libri novem, an Aldine imprint published in 1502, which doubled its high estimate to sell for $30,000.

Lot 148: Herodotus, Libri novem, first edition in the original Greek, in an 18th-century binding for the Venetian doge Mario Foscarini, Venice, 1502.Sold October 17, 2017 for $30,000.

Each of the 16 works in a dedicated section of Incunabula sold. Beyond the top lot, highlights included the second edition of Nicolaus Panormitanus de Tudeschis’s Lectura super V libris Decretalium, Basel, 1477, reaching $8,125, and Saint Hieronymus’s Epistolae, Venice, 1488, bound in a leaf from a manuscript choir book ($7,000).

All but one of the 35 offered Bibles found buyers, led by the first edition of the Bishop’s Bible, 1568, the most lavishly illustrated bible in English; the tome replaced the Great Bible for church use, and in the sale nearly doubled its high estimate to sell to a collector for $5,980. Psalterium Romanum…, 1576, a sammelband in handsome contemporary binding executed for a nun, also contains a ritual for baptisms and exorcisms, 1581, reached $2,000. One of few twentieth-century works in the sale was the 1913-14 Insel-Verlag limited-edition facsimile of the Gutenberg Bible in full, exuberant color on vellum, which sold for $7,000.

A popular section of early manuscript material was led by De claustro animae, a fourteenth-century manuscript in Latin on vellum by Hugo de Folieto, in which he uses the cloister as a metaphor for the soul ($28,750). A vellum leaf from a glossed Psalter in Latin, written in France in the twelfth century, nearly doubled its high estimate to reach $3,000. A beautifully illuminated French vellum bifolium from the calendar of a Book of Hours showing the months of January and June, executed in the later fifteenth century, sold for $5,250.

Lot 200: Illuminated vellum bifolium from the calendar of Book of Hours, France, later fifteenth century.Sold October 17, 2017 for $5,250.

Medical highlights included Monstrorum historia, a 1642 collection of descriptions of monsters and medical mysteries, with more than 450 woodcut illustrations. The work was compiled by Ulisse Aldrovandi and published posthumously in Bologna ($7,000). Also of note was the first American edition of Nicholas Culpeper’s The London Dispensatory, 1720, the first herbal, pharmacopoeia and medical book published in colonial America, which sold for $11,250.

Tobias Abeloff, our Specialist of Early Printed Books, noted that “There was unexpected interest in unusual items, such as a scarce 1691 edition of Officium defunctorum, or the Latin Office of the Dead, converted by an eighteenth-century owner into a bizarre personal scrapbook,” which reached $2,375, above an estimate of $100 to $200.

The handsome set of nine volumes, published serially, provides the foundation of modern knowledge of the Pacific, and is a cornerstone of the literature of travel and exploration. The tomes feature the original tan morocco binding with black and red accents. Each contains multiple folding maps and engraved plates depicting some of the sights and novelties Cook encountered on his final three journeys.

Otahiete, an island in French Polynesia.

Cook’s first circumnavigation began in 1764 aboard the ship Endeavor. He set off for Tahiti and the Southern Hemisphere, ostensibly to observe the transit of Venus across the sun, an event visible only from that part of the world. He was also given a secret military agenda, in a sealed document to be opened after the astronomical wonder had taken place. According to The History Channel, “Cook carried sealed orders instructing him to seek out the ‘Great Southern Continent,’ an undiscovered landmass that was believed to lurk somewhere near the bottom of the globe.” He did not find evidence of such a landmass, though he did circle New Zealand, proving that the country is an archipelago.

The BBC notes that “Endeavor arrived in Tahiti in April 1769 where [they were] able to observe the transit of Venus. Endeavor continued on to New Zealand, and then sailed along the length of Australia’s eastern coast, which had never before been seen by Europeans. Cook claimed it for Britain and named it New South Wales.”

A “Man of New Zealand”

Cook and his crew of some hundred men returned to England in 1771 and publication of the first three volumes began shortly thereafter, in 1773. By this time, he had already embarked on his second circumnavigational voyage (1772-75), during which he was supposed to gather information about the South Pole. Engravings in the books show Cook’s men shooting at walruses, which they called “sea horses,” in what appear to be insufficient coats.

Cook’s men hunting “sea horses” in the Antarctic.

A human sacrifice in Otaheite.

Cook’s third and final voyage (1776-80) sent him back to the Pacific, where he was tasked with finding a passage through the Arctic ice cap. Between the ice floes and the generally terrible conditions, his crew began to mutiny and he was forced to turn south. His two ships, the Resolution and the Discovery, approached Hawaii’s Kealakekua Bay, where the locals received them with much fanfare. On Valentine’s Day in 1779, they returned to the harbor for safety from a storm. The conversation came to fisticuffs and Cook was killed. His crew completed the circumnavigation and the series was finished.

Magnum Photos, founded as a cooperative agency in 1947, is perhaps the most well-known photographic collective in the world. Through the Magnum photographs included in our October 19 auction of Art & Storytelling: Photographs and Photobooks, a viewer can clearly see the “human connections” invoked by Henri Cartier-Bresson, a founder of Magnum, indicating a global community of which we are all a part.

Whether they visit foreign countries or probe their own neighborhoods, these photographers capture moments through which the viewer may make sense of the photographer’s perspective on any given time and its people. … Nostalgia may be understood as homesickness, or “unsatisfied desire.” In these cases, the desire is for connection and an understanding of community. While the groups portrayed vary in location and scope, the desire for the unattainable is universal.

The breadth of the Magnum philosophy allows for loose concepts to lend themselves to beautiful visual connections. Displayed together in our preview exhibition, a viewer can see reflections of Burt Glinn’s photograph of Andy Warhol and Edie Sedgwick in Inge Morath’s photograph from the Mask Series, a collaboration with Saul Steinberg.

This year marks the Seventieth Anniversary of the founding of Magnum, a landmark event commemorated by multiple exhibitions, including the above-mentioned Framing Community: Magnum Photos 1947-Present at Hunter College Art Gallery (through November 26th). Others include Women Seeing Women at Staley-Wise Gallery (Summer 2017) and the comprehensive Magnum Manifesto at the International Center of Photography (Summer 2017).

]]>Four works exceeded $100,000 at our sale of African-American Fine Art on Thursday, October 5. A wealth of unique paintings, drawings and monotypes distinguished the sale of approximately 150 lots, nearly all of which were executed in the last century.

An important nocturne by Henry Ossawa Tanner titled Flight into Egypt, circa 1910, was the highlight of the sale. The subject was a favorite motif of the artist’s, who took several trips to the Holy Land and was deeply inspired by the experience. The large oil painting was purchased by an institution for $341,000.

Works by Norman Lewis performed well, selling through the entire run of eight. These were led by an unusual 4.5-foot length of marbleized slate, adorned with small, stylized figures: Untitled (Procession Composition), 1960, sold to a collector for $233,000, above a high estimate of $150,000. Additional highlights by the Abstract Expressionist included a 1960 untitled oil painting on paper, and Sunset, 1951, another oil painting on paper ($21,250 and $15,000, respectively). Of the eight works by Lewis in the sale, only one was a print: the lithograph Untitled (Umbrella), 1945, nearly quadrupled its high estimate to sell for $18,750.

All but one of the seven offered works by Sam Gilliam found new homes. Each represented dramatically different stylistic periods in the artist’s oeuvre. A beveled-edge canvas from 1973 titled Rubiyat more than doubled its high estimate to sell for $191,000. Not Spinning, 2001-04, a plywood collage with acrylic paint, was one of the most contemporary works in the sale: it reached $57,500.

War Worker, 1943, is the second painting by Elizabeth Catlett ever to come to auction. The tempera on paper portrait exemplifies the artist’s work from her New York period. It reached 149,000, above an estimate of $90,000, a record for a painting by the artist. All but one of the eight works by Catlett offered in the auction sold. Two bronze busts, Glory, 1981, and Cabeza Cantando (Singing Head), 1960, found buyers for $40,000 and $27,500, respectively.

Lot 39: Richmond Barthè, The Awakening of Africa (Africa Awakening), cast bronze, 1959. Sold October 5, 2017 for $87,500, a record for the artist.

A new auction record was established for Richmond Barthè, whose 1959 cast bronze sculpture The Awakening of Africa (Africa Awakening) reached $87,500. Stevedore, a cast bronze on marble base modeled by the artist in 1937 and cast in 1985, was sold for $75,000.

All three dramatic oil paintings by Hughie Lee-Smith sold for more than $50,000 each. Untitled (Youths on a Lakeshore), 1952, dates to the artist’s time in Detroit, and was purchased by a collector for $93,750. A later cityscape, Interlude, 1991, reached $55,000.

Browse the catalogue for complete results.The next auction of African-American Fine Art at Swann Galleries will be held in Spring 2018. For more information or consign quality materials, contact Nigel Freeman at nfreeman@swanngalleries.com.

Photography is ubiquitous in visual culture. Whether you prefer contemporary works by Alec Soth or classical photographs by Ansel Adams, artists who employ this popular art form distinguish between the electronic or digital image — as on this page — and the physical, finished photograph.

Shooting a photograph can feel spontaneous, but it is the result of thoughtful choices: framing, lighting, subject matter, composition, et cetera. Creativity and imagination are key to developing a unique artistic style. Similarly, there are numerous aesthetic decisions involved in the realization of a photographic print, the three-dimensional object. For example, an artwork’s size results in an immediate experiential and spatial relationship while the print’s palette or tonal qualities create mood or atmosphere.

Lot 278: Jan Saudek, The Story of Flowers, series of six hand-colored silver prints, circa 1987. Estimate $3,000 to $4,500.

Everyone loves taking a quick peek at cell phone images, but making or looking at art requires a commitment of time. Slowing down to engage with a photograph offers the viewer a meaningful experience, a deeper understanding of an artist’s approach to image-making and, ideally, new insights into oneself. By recognizing the physicality of the photographic object we begin to see color and black-and-white photography differently, as a tangible art form that is not unlike painting and sculpture.

]]>Records & Results: Printed & Manuscript Americanahttps://www.swanngalleries.com/news/2017/10/records-results-printed-manuscript-americana-4/
Sat, 07 Oct 2017 19:18:31 +0000http://www.swanngalleries.com/news/?p=24201Hoards of history-lovers came out to attend the preview for our auction of Printed & Manuscript Americana on September 28. The sale featured a trove of unique material, much of which…

]]>Hoards of history-lovers came out to attend the preview for our auction of Printed & Manuscript Americana on September 28. The sale featured a trove of unique material, much of which had never previously been seen on the market. Department Director Rick Stattler said, “This sale emphasized quality over quantity. At 325 lots, it was one of the smallest Americana sales we’ve ever done, but the total hammer was the best of our past four Americana sales, and it finished above the top of its estimate range.”

The top lot in the sale was an archive of 245 letters that spanned nearly a century by early frontier missionaries in Minnesota, which was sold to a private collector for $112,500—triple the pre-sale estimate, and the highest price ever realized for an archive at Swann. Collectors also won a first-edition Book of Mormon for $37,500, and a New Hampshire broadside proclaiming the end of the American Revolution for $22,500.

Lot 190: E. Radford Bascome, two cyanotype albums documenting the construction of the Williamsburg Bridge, 1897-1903. Sold September 28, 2017 for $30,000.

A burgeoning section of photographic works performed exceptionally well, with a set of cyanotype albums compiled by E. Radford Bascome, chronicling the construction of the Williamsburg Bridge, 1897-1903, reaching $30,000, above a high estimate of $6,000. McClees’ Gallery of Photographic Portraits… of the Thirty-Fifth Congress, 1859, was one of the first photographically illustrated books published in the United States; it was purchased for $11,250.

Latin Americana was successful in this sale, led by a pair of early manuscripts by Baja California missionaries that brought $27,500 and $11,250, respectively, and Fernando de Cepeda’s rare 1637 book on Mexican engineering, which brought $12,500. Among the earliest examples of printing in the Americas are legal power-of-attorney forms printed in sixteenth-century Mexico: a previously unknown example, printed circa 1572, brought a record $2,000. All but one of the lots in this section found buyers, earning $115,272 and exceeding the high estimate for the run.

Lot 26: Medical journal kept by surgeons aboard the Continental frigate Deane and other vessels, 1777-88. Sold September 28, 2017 for $27,500.

Institutions bid actively throughout the auction. The biggest prize was a medical journal kept aboard the frigate Deane during the American Revolution. Additional institutional purchases included the papers of naval surgeon Pierre St. Medard, an early manuscript cookbook from Mexico and a logbook of an 1804-16 seal-hunting expedition off the coast of Antarctica.